Nefarious
by Kanna37
Summary: From the moment that Sesshoumaru sees Kagome for the first time, his blood screams to have her. However, Kagome is too innocent to accept his dark desires and in her fear fights him every step of the way. But his blood and need will not be denied - not even by Kagome herself. A Sess/Kag riff on canon-verse.
1. Fascination

ne·far·i·ous: adjective - extremely wicked or villainous; iniquitous.

**Chapter 1: Fascination**

Kagome stared up at the new youkai that had just descended from on high riding the shoulder of an enormous oni with shock – and instant fascination.

Vivid and wicked, silver-haired and golden-eyed, he stared down at Inuyasha contemptuously, and she couldn't even breathe when his eyes fell on her... his glance boiled the blood in her veins and froze every thought in her mind.

It was liquid sin, his molten-gold gaze, and she found herself unable to move as he stared at her, running his eyes over her – slowly - from head to foot.

_Who is this guy? _she wondered, awed. _He's... he's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen..._

Sesshoumaru's gaze moved from his brother to the female standing beside him slowly, and with just as much instant fascination.

_Human, _he thought with disgust... but then her scent hit him... _or is she? _He took another inhale of her scent, and his eyes became heavy-lidded as the call of her blood almost overwhelmed him – her blood spoke not of humanity, _or_ of youkai, but of sheer, intoxicating power... and youth.

_She is young, _his eyes trailed down her body, then back up, _but still mature._

_Mine, _his youkai blood insisted_. _Scent was the one thing an Inuyoukai could not fight or overrule – scent governed everything, every part of an inu's life, and not even the control-freak that Sesshoumaru was could fight the scent that this girl gave off.

Not that he even wanted to... _he had already been seduced by it._

_This fool half-breed has no business with a being of such power – and femininity,_ he thought. _I will dominate this female... and my bastard half-brother will watch in vain as I take his little companion from him._

_But first... the sword._

With a glint in his eye that had Kagome's skin rippling warningly, yet heatedly, he held her gaze and spoke for the first time.

She almost fell over on legs suddenly unable to support her.

"Why, it's a human girl," he purred, scornful amusement clear in his voice.

Kagome narrowed her eyes then, pulled out of her preoccupation with him at his words. "You got a problem with that?" she snapped, temper heating her normal dulcet tones.

Sesshoumaru's brow rose at her response; the amusement deepened and he almost laughed as he turned to his brother.

"How fitting, that you should be dallying with humans. You, with your mortal wretch of a mother, you seek your own level at last." _Except she is not his level, _his nose and his blood insisted. _She is way, way out of his reach. _

_Or she will be... once I take her for myself, _he thought to himself.

Kagome's eyes snapped to Inuyasha's back as he growled in anger, knowing then that her supposition that he was half-human had been correct.

She was appalled when the male – because as beautiful as he was, his masculinity was more than apparent – brought out a carriage with a woman inside he claimed was Inuyasha's mother. _Isn't she dead? _That question was answered when his vassal, a most annoying toad, claimed that for Sesshoumaru, bringing someone back from the dead was easy.

Of course, from there the fight only heated, and she listened intently to the male – who was Inuyasha's half-brother – explain his demands, before getting lost in her thoughts and confusion.

_Family doesn't act like this... what's this guy's problem?_

She was pulled back from her thoughts to the ongoing confrontation between Inuyasha and this... _person_, to find that Inuyasha's mother had been thrown to the ground, and she raced over to her and reached out, attempting to help her to safety.

"Are you all right?!" she asked when she reached the woman's side. _What the hell is going on? Why is that youkai doing this – for some grave? That's stupid!_

Sesshoumaru watched the girl run after the false-mother while Inuyasha battled his oni with a slight, weighing smile on his face. _The girl is quick... it will be a pleasure to chase her. _

Then he snarled as the boy exhorted her to take the un-mother and run, and moved his oni to attack his brother again – she would _not_ get away.

"You will not!" he hissed, driving down to send the half-breed to the ground. His plan came together as the un-mother attacked in ostensible protection of Inuyasha, instead taking both the girl, and his bastard brother, into Jaken's already prepared illusion.

As they disappeared, he looked down at his gami servant. "Keep the girl from interfering, Jaken."

"Hai, Sesshoumaru-sama – I will just kill the human filth, that way she will not cause any problems!" he croaked as he toddled into the illusion.

"If she dies, I will kill _you_. I did not say to kill her. You will not touch her, is that clear?"

The toad paled, back-pedaling rapidly. "Oh! Y-yes, Sesshoumaru-sama," he stuttered. "Do you wish me to bind her, then, instead?"

Sesshoumaru considered that for a moment, then inclined his head curtly. "But make sure you do not harm her – or you will pay. This one has... _plans_, for her," he said, "and will not appreciate having to change them because you blundered."

He followed the slow, waddling pace of his retainer, walking into the illusion a few minutes after him, and his eyes were immediately drawn to where the girl lay, now bound by unseen chains, unable to move or speak.

_What are you really, girl? _he thought to himself as he moved closer to her, careful to stay behind her. _The scent that you carry cannot come from a mere human. It is not possible._

He crouched and ran a finger down her cheek, his touch so light as to feel as though it were nothing more than a breeze to the girl that lay before him, struggling to open her eyes and regain her voice.

_She is so soft..._

His blood heated in his veins as he touched her and breathed her in; he was correct – this girl could not be human. She scented of pure power – as though she were born from the gods themselves.

In which case, she should not be with his half-breed brother.

_I will take great pleasure in deciphering the mystery that you are, little one... and in defiling the purity that comes off of you in waves. _

_I will make you as wicked as I..._

With a smirk, he stood then; looking to where his brother was being interrogated by the un-mother, he watched as Jaken pushed the thing to probe the boy harder. He moved away from Kagome, wanting to hear what Inuyasha had to say with his own ears.

Forcing her eyes open after several difficult moments, Kagome struggled to move, to speak, to do anything as she watched the demon impersonating Inuyasha's mother begin to suck him into herself, becoming frantic – until a sharp prick broke the spell she was under, and she reached up and smacked herself in the cheek.

It was Myouga, taking a free snack while she was immobile and unable to smash him.

"Thanks, Myouga, I think I can move now," she said wryly as she opened her palm to free him. A splash had her looking up; she realized with horror that Inuyasha had been pulled into the water, and that the demon was still trying to suck him into herself.

She also saw that stupid toad that had come with that... gorgeous, but _evil_ youkai moving a boat out into the water to try to get whatever answers he sought from the demon. But it wasn't working, and the moment he moved the boat back to land and climbed out, Kagome flattened him, stomping on his head as she took the staff he was carrying.

She looked around in fear, trying to figure out how to stop what was happening to her friend.

"Kagome, you've got to waken Master Inuyasha's soul!" Myouga said from her shoulder, bouncing up and down in excitement.

"Huh?" she asked, confused. "His soul? How do I do that?" _I'm too late, _she thought, beginning to panic as most of Inuyasha was now inside the nothing woman. Her gaze fell on the water, and that was when she saw a woman holding an infant.

Then she understood.

_That's part of her spell... her illusion – I have to destroy it!_

Dropping to her knees, she took the staff that she'd grabbed from the ugly toad and splashed it into the water, disrupting the illusion and breaking the spell completely.

As Inuyasha was cast from the illusion back onto solid ground coughing and hacking, Kagome looked around nervously, wondering where the youkai that claimed to be his brother had gone – surely, he was lurking around somewhere...

Sure enough, as Inuyasha crouched angrily on the ground, muttering to himself about it all being a lie, Sesshoumaru stepped forward. He'd been intrigued when the girl had broken the chains around her and decided not to interfere – merely watching as she attacked his retainer and then broke the illusion. He'd gained the knowledge he'd needed, anyway – and gotten a taste of her strength, as well.

_Intoxicating woman-child..._

"All for the best, dear brother," he said smoothly, turning his attention to the half-breed, "now I know where the grave of our father is." Moving forward in an instant, he grabbed the hanyou by the throat and lifted him. "I never imagined that it would be in such a place – can you imagine this Sesshoumaru being so blind?"

He chuckled mockingly, the sound causing a shiver to run down Kagome's spine.

"Trust father to hide his grave in such an odd place. The left black pearl... hmph. That must have taken a powerful bit of magic – he was determined to escape desecration, was he not?"

Inuyasha growled down at his brother as he tried to escape his grasp. "What kind of stupid shit are you babbling?!"

"Was the secret entrusted to you without your knowledge? Come along, then, and we'll visit father's grave together," he said as he plunged his fingers into his brother's eye, drawing out a small, black object covered in blood which burned away at Sesshoumaru's touch.

Kagome stared, wide-eyed, as the daiyoukai impaled his brother's eye on two fingers, horrified, but unable to look away. _He's horrible! Why is he doing this... and why am I unable to look away from him? __He's evil!_

She ran forward as he tossed Inuyasha down, coming to rest over him protectively. "Stop it!" she yelled defiantly, unafraid and angry.

He ignored her interruption as he stared at the object in his hand.

"It is no wonder I could not find it no matter how thoroughly I scoured the earth... I had only one clue to it's whereabouts... 'a place that can see, yet cannot be seen, a place its own guardian can never look upon'. So clear now," he mused, a smirk once more crossing his face, "that the 'grave' is the black pearl that he conjured into your left eye."

_That's the grave? _Kagome thought, scowling up at an amused Sesshoumaru. He pinned her with his lightening gaze, then, and she swallowed heavily at the heat that suddenly swirled through his eyes. _Why does he keep staring at me like that?_

_Soon, little woman, I will have the sword – and then I will take you, too. Inuyasha will have nothing left..._

His attention once more went to his angry whelp of a brother when his ears were assaulted by the boy's grating voice.

"Huh. All this, for that pebble even... giving that witch the form of my mother." He leapt at his brother then. "You won't get away with it!" he yelled.

Sesshoumaru simply jumped up, avoiding his brother's clumsy attack with amusement. "I am rather busy – if you wish to delay me, I will just have to kill you." He moved to impale his brother on one clawed hand, but suddenly, the un-mother threw herself before him, taking the attack instead of Inuyasha – and the hanyou and Kagome stared at her, stunned.

"The nothing woman... she protected him?" Kagome asked Myouga, who was still on her shoulder, unable to believe what she'd just seen.

"She's a demon born of a mother's love for her lost child – if she sees him being attacked, what else can she do?" he replied with a shrug of tiny shoulders.

"My boy," the doomed demon whispered, and then she was gone, as Sesshoumaru stepped into the remains of the demon that his claws had destroyed.

"Worthless fool," he said, staring down at the remains with contempt. Turning on his heel, he began to move away, determined to get the sword so he could get back and take the girl – until he was halted once again by her voice.

"You rotten, murdering...!" she began as her temper got the best of her, only to be interrupted by Myouga.

"No! Stop! Whoa! Don't antagonize him – you'll get_ me_ killed, too!"

Kagome looked down at him, irate. "Listen, coward..." she stopped suddenly, her attention going to the stupid toad she'd so thoroughly stomped as he finally groaned and stood up, reaching immediately for the staff he seemed so fond of.

"Clever lad that I am, M'Lord, I've found the head-staff again!" he croaked.

"Next time, you will lose your own head with it," Sesshoumaru replied warningly, turning his attention to the toad. Then he looked down at the pearl in his hand. "How long I have awaited this moment..." he took the staff from Jaken, and smashed it into the pearl that he had placed on the ground – and Kagome watched, spell-bound, as power flashed as the pearl sparked... and a dark portal suddenly sprang open before them all.

_Black light... _she was startled when Sesshoumaru and his toad suddenly disappeared. _Where the...?_

By the time Inuyasha gathered himself and started to order Kagome to stay behind, she was already halfway into the portal, determined to catch that youkai and give him a piece of her mind.

"Idiot! Sesshoumaru's in there!" he shouted at her, annoyed that she just continually seemed to jump into danger.

"Well, then, if I'm gonna _pound_ him, I'd better be there, too!" she yelled back, still irate, and yet, unable to stop thinking about that male.

He was a jerk – but there was something drawing her to him, too, and she was going to figure out what it was if it was the last thing she did.

~oOo~

"_Well, then, if I'm gonna pound him, I'd better be there, too!"_

With a gasp, Kagome woke and sat up almost frantically as she shivered in the cool night air.

_Why am I dreaming about that... again? _With a sigh, she reached up and wiped the little bit of sweat away from her forehead. _It's been a week since that all happened – and yet I dream about it every night. Why?_

She closed her eyes and let herself see him in her mind's eye once more. Tall, much taller than Inuyasha and with the same silver hair, though it was longer, and golden eyes. Yet, he had all those colorful markings – attractive markings that Inuyasha didn't carry. She wondered what they were for.

Well dressed, obviously wealthy, unlike his little brother, his clothes spoke of elegance and his armor of precision and care.

Beautiful, yes, gorgeous, yes... enough to get any female's attention. But he was _nefarious. _So why was she so fascinated? She should have been nothing but repulsed – and yet, repulsed was completely the opposite of the truth of the matter.

She was attracted – _drawn_ to the sexy male.

Frustrated, she huffed to herself and climbed out of her sleeping roll to head out the door of Kaede's hut, careful not to disturb the elderly miko. It was apparent that Inuyasha was once again sleeping somewhere outside – but that was fine by her – she didn't want company at this time.

No, she needed to be alone.

Her mind wandered from the dream to what had happened with the rest of that confrontation – and she grimaced. Because that beautiful youkai was now minus an arm... courtesy of Inuyasha – and his new sword.

That sword had been the whole reason that Sesshoumaru had been after his brother, it turned out – but it had rejected him most violently, burning his hand as he'd tried to draw it.

Then it had resisted Inuyasha, too...

_And yet_, she blushed, _it let me pull it from its resting place. I wonder why? _It had certainly left an impression on Sesshoumaru – he'd stared at her even harder, and she'd felt the heat of his gaze as though it were a physical touch on her.

"_What are you, girl?"_ he'd asked, every bit of his formidable attention pinned to her in that moment.

She shivered then, as she remembered what had come next... him pouring his poison over her in an attempt to kill her... or so it had seemed. And yet, she had noted the look in his eye that spoke of something else at the time – and it still bothered her.

_What did that look mean? And the look he gave me when Inuyasha cut off his arm? Even though he'd transformed, the way he looked at me – it was as though... it was like he was telling me he'd return. Like... he didn't want to leave._

_But that couldn't be it, could it? He doesn't know me, and apparently doesn't like humans. So why...?_

She shook her head, then, flustered and annoyed at herself for not being able to get it out of her mind.

This whole thing was something entirely beyond her – she'd never dealt with anything of this sort, so she had no experience in being attracted to someone. After all, she was only seventeen – the only daughter of a shrine family, kept protected and pure.

_Though that doesn't seem to matter here – girls as young as thirteen are married off as long as they've had their first courses. It's just the way things are done in this time, I guess... but it's totally different in my time. I'm not ready to deal with a man in such a manner..._

And then, of course, in this situation there was the corollary that the one in question wasn't even a _man_ – he was a _male – _an inuyoukai male. At first glance, that might not look like much of a difference... but it was a _huge_ one, in truth.

_Of course, he's a dog demon – and the only one that I could even ask about this would be Inuyasha – but that wouldn't go over at all well. So what does that leave me?_

And then something occurred to her – perhaps there was some kind of information on inuyoukai at home... in the shrine artifacts and scrolls that her grandfather was always so proud of. Perhaps she could find out some useful information there – or possibly search the internet for stories and myths that might tell her something.

It was a start, and she sighed as she turned and stared out over the forest on one side, and the rice paddies of the village on the other in the bright moonlight. _Yes... it would be a start, but..._

But for all her thoughts, she was pretty sure that she wasn't going to find out what to do about her predicament from any of those sources.

No, she had the feeling that the only way she was going to be finding out about Sesshoumaru...

Was straight from Sesshoumaru himself.

Somehow, that thought was not comforting at all.

~oOo~

Inuyasha growled suddenly, warningly, staring challengingly out into the trees as he paused in his restless rounds of the village.

The moment he'd stepped this close to the trees, he'd caught the aura of the one being he never wanted to be around again.

Sesshoumaru.

"Back already, bastard – even after I cut your arm off, you're still coming around here to take the sword back?" he challenged.

There was no reaction for a moment, then the silent figure of his hated brother stepped from the trees to stare at him. He didn't speak a word.

"Huh. Cat got your tongue – just like the sword got your arm?" he taunted. "You should be careful, Sesshoumaru – if you keep losin' parts you won't even be worth spittin' on."

Still, no acknowledgment from the silver Inu Lord, and Inuyasha began to get a little uneasy. Sesshoumaru was just standing there – as though he were awaiting something.

Inuyasha stared hard at him, but there was no movement – until Kagome came pounding up behind him, breathing a little heavy as she stared at the male standing his ground just a few feet away.

"Inuyasha... what's he doing here?" she asked quietly, gazing at the daiyoukai distrustfully.

The moment that Kagome had appeared, Sesshoumaru's gaze moved to her as though he were dismissing his brother entirely. The hanyou's hackles immediately began rising at the look on the bastard's face – it wasn't something he could decipher... and he didn't like that. A person needed to know exactly where they stood with that prick if they intended to survive any encounters with him.

Drawing the sword, he swung it under Sesshoumaru's nose. "What the hell _are_ you doing here, you son-of-a-bitch?"

Sesshoumaru wasn't even having to try to ignore the half-breed – the moment the female's scent hit his nose, his brother's unpleasant one diminished to nothing. Holding her gaze with his own now smoldering one, he lifted his nose just slightly and scented the air – and it was clear that, though she was not inu, she knew what he was doing, as a flush spread across her cheeks.

He smirked – his point had been made to her. She was now aware that he could scent her attraction to him, and that he was watching – he was done here for now. With one last, lingering look, he pushed the Tessaiga aside with one finger, ignoring the small spark it sent skittering against his flesh, then turned on his heel and faded back into the shadows beneath the trees – all without speaking one word.

Within moments, you couldn't even tell he'd been there.

The minute his eyes left hers Kagome's knees wobbled and she actually fell, unable to maintain her balance as she was once again able to breathe.

In the instant that his eyes had met hers, she'd felt the impact all the way to her soul. It was sensual, hot, _desirous,_ and she had no way to fight it. Just his _gaze_ was enough to send her blood through her veins with a thick heat that sensitized every nerve in her body.

And it left her desperately drawing air once again as the white youkai with the dark heart disappeared. Her blood roared in her ears, deafening her to Inuyasha's confused and angered ranting after his brother as he sheathed the sword, then turned to glare at her.

"What the _fuck_ was that all about, Ka-go-me, huh?" he asked acidly, seemingly offended by her bewildered expression.

She looked up at him finally and shook her head, not knowing what to say. "I... I don't know," she whispered, dazed confusion clear in her gaze. Her eyes wandered back to where Sesshoumaru had disappeared, and her mind spoke one word to her.

_Obsession..._

She was pulled from her confusion by Inuyasha's rough voice saying, "Feh – stupid wench. Go back to Kaede's and get some sleep. And don't come back out, got it? Something's up with that bastard, and I don't want him getting his hands on you."

She nodded absently, not even really listening to him as her innocent mind fought against the instinctive knowledge that Sesshoumaru's actions was forcing into it. Standing up slowly, she moved off silently, not noticing the sharp look her hanyou companion was leveling on her as she turned and walked away.

_Obsession, _her mind whispered again...

Shivering in visceral, virginal fear, she felt his eyes on her back – he was watching her from somewhere in those trees, and it was like being stared at by a hungry predator.

It was as real as if he was running his hands over her bare flesh.

A/N: And welcome to my new Sess/Kag, everyone! I hope this one entertains and keeps you all satisfied~

Amber


	2. Fixation

**Chapter 2: Fixation**

Sesshoumaru stared out towards the village from his spot in the forest and thought darkly on the events of the last several weeks.

Things had completely changed for him the moment he'd gotten a single whiff of that girl's powerful, drugging, intoxicating, _wonderful _scent. He couldn't ignore that scent; it was like a siren's call to his blood, his instincts – it touched something primal and ancient inside him...

It called to everything that made him youkai.

That was all part of being Inu. Nothing spoke more to an inu than scent, and no true inu could ever turn away from a scent that called to them as hers did to him. So this fixation that he had developed with the female named Kagome was out of his control – he would never be able to break away from her, no matter how controlled he was.

He did not even want to.

Though she presented as a human, she was power, plain and simple, and he had no care what anyone else thought – she would belong to him. With the scent and power that she carried, she was _meant _to be his, and he would take great pleasure in taking the girl-child that she was, and making her a woman... _his _woman.

_Corrupt her, _his blood whispered. _Taint her, mark her, teach her to want_._ Show her desire..._

_Seduce her._

Through eyes heavy-lidded and dilated almost black, he could see her tiny form writhing before him and beneath him, around him and above him, crying out his name – gifting him with her virgin's blood as he took her, and then more blood as he marked her.

He could almost taste her...

He shivered as waves of pleasure trailed down his spine – but then his eyes narrowed in anger and glowed redly; there was something that stood in his way...

Inuyasha.

Again. _Always_.

It seemed that the boy stood in his path anytime there was something that the elder youkai wanted. First, taking their father from he and his mother, then the sword – his father's fang, a powerful relic... and now, the female that he _craved _with every beat of his heart, with every breath he drew that was laden with her scent.

This whole area was covered in that divine smell, and it was firing his determination, his need to have it, to bathe himself in it, to claim it for his own.

But it was clear that in order to do so he would have to separate the dainty girl from his half-brother – permanently, of course.

He shifted in the tree that he was hidden in, eyes once again sweeping the village before him as he sought to catch sight of his prize. He needed to come up with a way to get him away from her... but how?

How to come between them?

He certainly didn't want the two to grow any closer than they already were – it was bad enough that she cared for the half-breed as much as she did. The odd part about it was that the stupid hanyou had no idea what he was dealing with in the girl, and treated her as though she were lower than the dirt he walked on - most of the time.

Was the fool truly that blind? Or was there, perhaps, something more to his treatment of her? Who was this strange, powerful woman-child that wore such strange clothing, carried articles of design that even he had never seen – and knowledge that only the most honored scholars had even guessed at?

She was a mystery – a cipher of unknown proportions, a blank, a puzzle he was determined not only to understand – but to claim as his own.

~oOo~

Almost a month later, Sesshoumaru nodded in satisfaction – Urasue would do as he'd been sure she would when he gave her the idea to resurrect the late miko, Kikyou. After all, she wanted to find the shards of that useless jewel as much as his mutt of a brother seemed to.

But with the information Jaken had dug up, pointing to his brother's involvement and infatuation with the dead woman, he was sure that this would work as a way to separate the female of _his _desires from his brother. After all, it would be difficult for them to form any closer attachment with the whelp busy chasing an undead corpse...

Now all he had to do was sit back and watch his scheme to separate Inuyasha and Kagome take shape.

He'd honestly been surprised when Jaken had come back with the information about what had _really_ happened to get his fool of a half-brother pinned to the tree he'd been hanging from for so long. It just seemed to be too good to be true – that the hanyou would be so easy to topple from his place at the girl's side.

He should have known that it _was_ too good to be true...

Jaken barely survived the beating he took when Urasue made her move, only for him to find out that the girl, Kagome, was actually the _reincarnation_ of the miko of his brother's past – and that in order for the witch to bring Kikyou back, Kagome would have to die.

The only reason he did survive was because Kagome _also_ survived.

Sesshoumaru was infuriated, yes, at the risk that she'd been placed under – yet also pleased to see her power in action. No other being in history had ever been able to do what she had, calling her soul back from the spell it had been bound by. That spell, used in that manner, had always been universally fatal to the one it had been used against.

But not her.

It only reaffirmed his decision to take her – reaffirmed his desire for her, his obsession for her, told him that he was _right _to want her.

The more he learned of her, the more he wanted to learn, the more he wanted _her_. His previous want of the Tessaiga, the thing he'd spent literally years searching non-stop for was dropped by the wayside without a second thought, left as unneeded now – nothing had ever held his attention as this girl did.

Answers about her were so scarce, so difficult to come by, only stoking his want of her higher and higher as his frustration that he couldn't find out more, that he couldn't seem to part her from his damned brother, that he couldn't take her for himself _right now, _grew_. _He burned, he yearned for her flesh, for her soul, for everything that made her Kagome... and for more knowledge of her. He would never be satisfied until she was his in every way that existed, until everything there was to know of her was known by him.

She would not be allowed to remain a mystery, not to him. He would know her and all her secrets, and to that end, he watched her. After that fiasco with Urasue, he watched her constantly, unwilling to ever again let anything endanger her.

And that was how, on a bright sunny day, he found out about her origins.

No one was more shocked or intrigued than he... or more convinced that she should belong to him.

"The future..."he breathed, eyes narrowed. "She knows the future... what a prize I have found. There is no way I will ever allow her to escape my grasp."

~oOo~

Kagome sat on the edge of the well and stared off into the forest, caught up in her thoughts. She'd just returned from her time, but she had so much on her mind that she couldn't stand the thought of dealing with Inuyasha at this point... he was still too angry and frustrated over the mess with Kikyou to be good company... and besides, her mind was stuck on another Inu altogether.

She was well aware that he was constantly around. Almost every moment she was in this era she could feel his aura caressing hers... she was actually surprised that Inuyasha hadn't noticed, himself. She supposed his brother was hiding his presence from him... and only letting her feel him.

And feel him she did.

Every waking moment she felt him, felt the heaviness of his youki, the darkness of his aura, yet the oddly contradictory light of his soul - she was becoming obsessed with him - she almost couldn't think of anything else, and it was getting hard to hide her preoccupation with the wickedly beautiful male from her hanyou companion.

Perhaps the fact that she was so used to feeling his aura was the reason that she didn't realize he was upon her until he was holding her against a tree on the other side of the well-clearing.

Sesshoumaru's eyes almost rolled into the back of his head as his eyelids slid closed in the ecstasy of truly touching her, of being so close to her that her scent was clouding his mind... his blood thickened in his veins and he was instantly aroused, his member so hard so suddenly that he felt light-headed.

Gritting his teeth at the rush of blood and desire, he lowered his head to her throat and inhaled, drawing in as much of her scent as he could possibly hold in his lungs. His fingers tightened around her upper arm, an involuntary reaction to his sexual hunger, and her whimper only deepened the fog clogging his mind.

"Tell me, little woman... what are you, really?" he whispered in her ear. "I want to know... _need _to know..." he trailed off, almost unable to even speak at the feel of her and the sheer passion he felt.

He was not unused to bed play – no inu worth his salt remained untouched the moment he reached sexual maturity – but nothing in the almost three hundred years of his had prepared him for his reactions to this one tiny female. Never had anything more than physical pleasure been had; this went so far beyond that it was almost pure. This involved every bit of what made him Sesshoumaru – his mind, his heart, his soul... and his youkai blood – all of it yearned for this woman. All of it was affected by her.

It was apparent that fascination was mutual from the scent coming from her, but just as apparent that, unlike him, who had no desire to hide from it, she fought it. She was frightened by him, by what he made her feel.

"I'm a human, Sesshoumaru," she finally whispered back. "One of those beings that you hate – so you should let me go. You wouldn't want my presence to _taint_ you."

He chuckled at that, honestly amused at her attempt to dissuade him from his chosen path. "Do you think that will work? This one will never second-guess himself once his choice has been made, miko. And make no mistake-" he pressed further into her, letting her feel his reaction to her, "-my choice has been made. Nothing will keep me from what I want. Not even you."

She whimpered again at his words, her eyes widening in shock as she felt his arousal grinding into her belly. Panic-stricken, she stared at him, fear freezing her where she was. "B-but... _why?_! _I don't understand_..." she trailed off, tears of fear and frustration gathering in her eyes.

Lifting his hand, he drew a finger down her cheek, then cupped it. "Because I want you – there is no other answer. And because I want you, I will have you. You will be mine, girl, there is no other option for you."

Thinking irrationally through her fear, she asked, "So... if I sleep with you, you'll be done with me and go away?"

Lips tilting into a dangerous half-smile, he shook his head, silver tresses caressing her bare arms as they flared around the two. "Oh, no, little woman, it will not be that easy for you. No... you will never get away from me. I mean to claim you in the way of my kind – and that claim is permanent. _ Forever_ permanent."

Kagome's eyes widened even further as fear and desire clashed inside her. She didn't know what to think – this being before her frightened her, yet he was apparently her own brand of poison; he held a fascination for her that she knew instinctively she would never be free of.

Suddenly, he let go of her, spinning to catch his brother's blade on Tenseiga – while he'd been otherwise occupied, Inuyasha had appeared, and seeing him with Kagome had attacked without considering the consequences of his actions.

"You _fool_!" he hissed, enraged. "Do you _try_ to endanger her?!"

Mouth hanging open, Kagome stared at the daiyoukai in front of her. _He... did he just... __protect__ me? _she thought incredulously.

"What the fuck are you doing with her, bastard?! You'd better stay the hell away!" Inuyasha shouted, whipping Tessaiga to the side and leaping back, hoping to draw Sesshoumaru away from Kagome.

Unfortunately for him, that little maneuver didn't work; the daiyoukai held his ground, still hovering protectively before the female he desired with everything that made him Sesshoumaru – that made him _youkai._

"Did you think to pull me away from her? I am not so blind as that, _mutt_. So, what will you try now, hmm?" Sesshoumaru mocked, every sense not busy on Inuyasha pinned on Kagome. He would keep her safe - even from herself if need be.

It was apparent that his baka half-brother still had no self-control when he became angered, as had just been demonstrated; angry, he was a danger even to those who were supposedly his friends or allies. This was not acceptable.

"Get away from her!" the hanyou howled. "_I_ protect Kagome!"

"You have no control, Inuyasha! You claim to protect her? And yet you do not even seem to care that you could have killed her with your wild swings! You are an embarrassment to our father's proud blood!" he snapped acidly.

"Shut the fuck up, Sesshoumaru! You don't know shit about me!" the enraged hanyou spat back.

"It is more than apparent to anyone with eyes, fool, there is no need to 'know' you!" Eyes sparking red as his anger began to override his own logical mind, he glared threateningly at Inuyasha. "You have proven incapable of caring for anything, half-breed, so perhaps I should take her from you now and be done with it," he said, voice rough and guttural, dark and heavy with promise.

Kagome was still pressed against the tree, staring at Sesshoumaru in shock. _All of this... he's defending me! Against Inuyasha! But... but why? I don't understand why he seems so fascinated with me – I'm just another human!_

"She isn't yours to worry about, you overbred son-of-a-bitch!" Inuyasha shouted, and something in that statement suddenly calmed Sesshoumaru's dark heart.

With an icily amused smirk, he stepped back, once more in perfect control. "And you are so certain, hanyou?" he asked, voice dangerously soft, insinuating. "Do you say she is yours, then?"

"Keh! Kagome's _my_ shard detector – what's it to ya, huh, prick?!" Inuyasha growled.

Those words finally woke Kagome up from her Sesshoumaru-induced stupor, and her eyes flashed angrily as she glared at the arrogant hanyou, flushing becomingly in her temper.

"Osuwari! I'm not _your_ anything, Inuyasha! No one owns me, least of all you! I'm searching for the shards of the Shikon jewel because it came from _my_ body and _I_ broke it – that's the _only_ reason!"

Sesshoumaru was once again stunned as he gleaned more knowledge of his obsession. _That jewel that so many youkai seek came from her? Perhaps I should just listen to this fight; I may learn more about her, and straight from the source, too. _His attention was pulled back to the argument, something inside him almost laughing at the sight of his baka brother forced to the ground by just one word from the little female.

"Well, then maybe I'll just take my chances and look for the shards myself, bitch!" the hanyou barked, and Kagome glared even harder at him.

"_Osuwariiii_, Inuyasha," she sang again, watching with her hands on her hips as he pounded deeper into his crater. "It wouldn't do you any good, stupid – I'm the only one that can put them back together and you know it, so stop trying to make me mad. It's not gonna work!"

_So she is the jewel's mistress, _the daiyoukai surmised. _I know the legends of the jewel's provenance – how then did she come to carry it within her... and why does it purify only for her?_

"So? What does that matter, as long as I can find them?" Inuyasha snapped back, pulling his face from the dirt it was in.

"Fat lot of good the stupid thing would do you if it was in pieces and tainted, you idiot," she shot back. "All it would do is take you over and you'd be nothing but its toy." As he opened his mouth to growl at her, she pointed at him threateningly, and his mouth closed as he realized that he was in a very untenable situation – with his brother right near him.

"Listen to me, Inuyasha. You need to just shut up before I go right back home, and then where will you be? I'm not putting up with your lip right now – I am _really_ not in the mood."

Startling her, Sesshoumaru cut in at that moment, reminding her of his presence. She whipped around to face him, eyes widening as she wondered how in the hell she could have forgotten _him._

"It seems that you are even more pathetic than I thought, Inuyasha," he mocked, "falling to a weak mortal spell." He eyed the necklace around his brother's neck for a moment. And then an evil smirk lifted his lips. "I bet you do not even realize the provenance of those beads, do you? How like you to be so blind – and stupid," he finished, biting contempt in his voice.

"Keh!" Inuyasha, heated rage at his brother fueling him, pushed to his feet and lunged threateningly at him, missing by a mile as Sesshoumaru merely side-stepped out of the way. "Kaede made 'em!"

"No, she did not, fool. The signature of power that binds them _is_ weak, but it is not hers. They were created by another," his evil smirk widened as he sank the knife into his brother deeply, "they were created by your undead lover. She created those beads to control you – and it looks as though, despite their weakness, they work quite well to bind you. But that is not surprising," he finished, his gaze once more going to the object of all his wants, dismissing his brother as unimportant, "since you are so weak, yourself."

His words froze Inuyasha in his tracks for a second, shock and hurt clawing up his throat. "You lie," he hissed, then leapt at his brother once more.

Only, in his rage, he didn't take into account that Kagome was now between them.

Sesshoumaru reacted instantly, placing himself before her once again, a rage answering his brother's now in his once-more reddening eyes as he snarled challengingly at the hanyou. With no further patience, he attacked and within moments Inuyasha was on his back on the other side of the glen, laid out and unconscious.

He held himself there for several seconds, trying to regain control. It took much effort, but once his blood slowed, he turned to face the young woman behind him who was staring at him in wary shock.

"I don't understand you, Sesshoumaru," she whispered after a silent moment. "In your father's remains you tried to kill me with your poison... _now_ you want to save me?"

He took an involuntary step towards her, stopping only when she stepped back in answer. His eyes narrowed at that. "You are mistaken, Ka-go-me," he said, his voice rumbling from deep in his chest. "I have never tried to kill you, for if I had, you would be dead. In my father's remains I used my poison to melt the bone so it would form a cage to keep you out of the fight between the half-breed bastard and I. I'll not suffer anything to harm that which I desire, not even myself."

"That's a lie," she managed to get out, her voice husky – she didn't notice the shiver it sent down the daiyoukai's spine, but he certainly noted the effect. "You told Inuyasha that he would never see me again – you meant to kill me!"

In the blink of an eye, she once again found him right in front of her, and she gasped. His eyes were haloed in red, and he no longer seemed interested in their conversation. "Oh, I meant those words, but only in the context as a warning to him – once you are mine, he never will see you again."

Kagome inhaled deeply, trying to get enough oxygen to her hazy mind, which just caused her to take in the inuyoukai's totally intoxicating scent – he smelled of winter, crisp and clean, edged with pine and mint, and it took every bit of determination she had to push him away when all she really wanted to do was melt into him.

"No... I don't_ want _you. I don't want to go with you. _I won't!_" she rasped out, repudiating him, though it took everything she had to say those words to him.

He stepped back, then, his eyes cooling as he considered her thoughtfully for a few seconds. "You lie – to yourself and to me. But I can wait, little woman," he said, his voice becoming smug. "You will only last so long, and then your need will overwhelm you. When that time arrives, I will come – and then it will all be over for you, make no mistake. You will be mine, willingly – you merely delay the inevitable with your caviling."

And with one last enigmatic glance at her, he turned and walked away, disappearing back into the forest like a ghost.

Kagome stared after him for long, frozen moments, unable to move... then her knees gave out and she slumped to the ground, exhausted from fighting his desires...

...and her own.

_This is wrong! w_as the only thought that rang despairingly through her mind, even as she stared at Inuyasha, still laying where he'd fallen.

_Inuyasha..._


	3. Encounters

**Chapter 3: Encounters**

"_Sesshoumaru!" _

Sitting up with a gasp, Kagome rapidly blinked eyes blinded by the darkness around her as she tried to adjust to the low light. Still caught in whatever nightmare had catapulted her out of her sleep, she didn't realize that there was a pair of narrowed golden eyes watching her – because she'd gasped that forbidden name aloud.

Trying to catch her breath and force the thoughts of a certain Inu Lord of her acquaintance out of her mind, she panted, chest heaving with the strain.

_Why can't I stop thinking about him? He keeps invading even my dreams, _she thought, fingers clasping her head in frustration. _He's dark, depraved, and evil, and nothing that I want to be around!_

But even as she tried to convince herself, she knew she was lying – her entire body hurt with how badly she wanted him. It was confusing, and left her in a state of bewilderment that wouldn't let her go.

She had never been attracted to the bad boy type before, the only boy she had ever liked back home, in an innocent way, had been Hojo – who was the complete antithesis of a bad boy. He was the quintessential nice guy – the kind your mother wanted to see you with. He was bright, ambitious, and of good family – they traced their roots even further back into the past than she had found herself in.

That was the kind of guy she liked.

Or at least, that was the kind of guy she had _thought_ she liked.

Sesshoumaru was nothing like that at all. Wicked, self-centered and egotistical, filled with hatred of humanity and his brother, he should have made her skin crawl in revulsion. Only... it wasn't revulsion she felt whenever she thought about him.

Sure, he was gorgeous. If she were to be absolutely truthful with herself, he was the most ungodly beautiful thing she'd ever seen.

"Yes, that's true... he is most beautiful," she whispered to herself, still unaware of the golden-eyed hanyou staring at her with ever narrowing eyes, "but he's dangerous! I shouldn't even be thinking about him – I've got a dangerous enough mission to think about right now, and I really don't need all the sleepless nights. This has to stop," she finished with a groan.

But even though she knew she was right, she also knew it wouldn't matter – he was in her mind, and there was no way she would be able to evict him now. He was, rather, taking over more and more, infiltrating every part of her thoughts. It was untenable and infuriating.

If this didn't stop soon, he'd have completely taken over...

And that was just what he wanted, just what he'd said would happen.

With a despondent sigh, she laid back down, surprised for a moment that she hadn't woken Shippo up when she'd sat up so suddenly. But she was glad she hadn't, and snuggling up to the little kit they'd rescued so recently, she sighed once more and let her eyes drift closed, slowly falling back to sleep.

Up in the tree above her, Inuyasha's eyes flared angrily – he'd heard her call out Sesshoumaru's name, and what she'd said afterward, and a simmering rage settled low in his gut.

He would not allow that bastard his father had sired first to have her.

~oOo~

Sesshoumaru was enraged.

How badly he wanted to wrap his hands around the throat of that monk! How dare the weak fool touch what was not his – and then, even worse - Inuyasha, _holding_ her!

The pure _fury_ that had run through him during their encounter with the monk... it was a miracle that either male was still alive, and a testament to his control. Kagome still wasn't aware that the monk had seen her bathing, as well. That was a sight he himself would never forget – but it infuriated him that another had seen her in such a state of vulnerability.

It had been all he could do to stay away, but he had told her that he would leave her be for a time – time that he knew full well would only heighten her desire for him.

It pleased him that she desired him with the same intensity he did her, and it only added to his conviction that she was meant to be his. Just what it was that was drawing them together was unknown – but by now, the great daiyoukai of the west no longer even cared to think about it, he simply didn't find it important. She called to what made him youkai, and he called back to her, drawing her to him just as strongly as he was to her. It was a circle, endless and eternal, perfect and never to be broken.

It was as simple as that.

Still, that other males traveled with her, as he could only dream of doing, aggravated his youkai instincts to take her and claim her, and sooner or later, it would happen. He would only be able to hold out for so long – and he hoped it was long enough.

Because he did not want to take her while she was still so unwilling and fighting her want of him. He wanted her to break down and come to him willingly – to want him as freely as he did her. And there was more than one reason for that, too... it wasn't just because he didn't want to force her – of course he didn't want to harm her in that way, he had no desire to break her spirit. But... it would also break his fool of a half-brother if she came to him willingly, choosing him freely.

It was apparent to him, and others, as well, that the whelp cared for the young woman far more than he would admit and Sesshoumaru found that the knowledge that the longer he waited, the more the fool would have invested in her and the more pained he would be when she repudiated him soothed his ever present need just a bit.

It was enough to keep hold of his sanity... for now.

In the meantime, he would continue to watch, coming and going with no one the wiser. That way, he could make sure she remained safe, and also, he would be able to learn more of her. The more he could pick up about her, the better he would like it – he would not be content until he knew everything there was to know of the woman named Kagome.

Eyes narrowed, he looked down at his hand, clenching it just a bit as frustration kicked in over the loss of his arm. It sent a shaft of rage through him that his damned brother had taken his ability to hold the female he was determined to claim with both arms. Instead, he was left marred and incomplete.

He felt betrayed, in a way... that the Tessaiga, his father's own fang, had maimed him – after it had rejected him. Because he was youkai, he could not even touch the blade – his sire had bespelled it, to make sure that he couldn't have it. Had he hated his heir so much?

_Chichi-ue... _he wrenched his mind away from the useless upwelling of hurt the thought of his sire and the circumstances of the past always engendered in him. They were thoughts with no purpose and he had better things to think of now than his sire's contempt towards him.

_Still, Kagome aside... I will take the Tessaiga as well – even if only so Inuyasha doesn't have it. _

With one last glance at his obsession, Sesshoumaru faded into the forest, leaving the small, but growing group alone for now. He had some thinking to do.

~oOo~

"So you are the great Sesshoumaru-sama," came a sibilant voice, and Sesshoumaru paused in his step, though he did not turn around.

He'd known something was following him for a while, but when he'd scented the beast, he'd been disgusted, and dismissed the being from his thoughts – it was a mere hanyou. A spider hanyou, at that. Weak.

Nothing but vermin to one such as he.

But now... that worthless thing was speaking to him.

"Leave, insect. I have no use for half-breeds," he said, voice icy and controlled.

He could feel the flare of anger from the being, yet still, he did not turn around. He was surprised, though, when the anger was held in.

"Perhaps not most half-breeds, Sesshoumaru-sama, but this particular hanyou could be of use to you."

Sesshoumaru, poised to continue on his way, once more stopped, and finally turned around to face the being daring to interrupt him.

Though surprised at the sight that met his eyes, he did not show it, instead taking silent stock of his opponent.

Covered in a baboon pelt, crouching before him, the spider hanyou that seemed to be trying to hide what he was watched him carefully, and Sesshoumaru simply watched him back, not saying a word.

That seemed to almost amuse the spider.

"I know of your desire for the sword that Inuyasha carries. And your inability to just take it. The barrier on the blade is most troublesome," he said sympathetically. "But... if you were to take a human arm and use it, you could bypass the barrier altogether, and have that which you desire. I could... _assist_ you in this matter."

Silent for several moments longer, Sesshoumaru considered the spider before him. He had no qualms with using the beast. "And what would the price be for the assistance that you offer? he asked coldly.

"Oh, only something that you would enjoy – all I want, Sesshoumaru-sama, is Inuyasha's death. I know that you hate him for the stain on your family's honor. Since his death is a thing that would please us both, that is all I would ask in return for my assistance in gaining the sword," he responded, his voice oily and unctuous.

_Fool, _Sesshoumaru sneered inwardly. _Does he think I cannot smell his deceit?_

"Your name?"

"I am known as Naraku," the hanyou replied.

"And how would you have me use a human arm to take Tessaiga? The arm would have to be bound to me and my will – though the thought of bearing a filthy human's arm is disgusting in the extreme."

Pulling his own arm from under the pelt he was hidden under, Naraku held up a pale arm, cut off in the same place his had been and Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes on it. It had a shard of that cursed jewel in it. He had felt it as the hanyou had kept it hidden, but hadn't really cared – after all, he had more than enough power of his own. He had no need to covet such a thing – though he definitely coveted its mistress, that was a different matter altogether.

"As upsetting as being forced to use a human arm would be, I believe the results would be worth the disgust. It will allow you to take the sword and kill your brother, which is what you want." He paused, and took out another object from under the baboon skin and held it out, then said, "As for the monk that now travels with Inuyasha, I think that this will prove most useful in sidelining him."

Sesshoumaru reached out and took the object thoughtfully, noting that it was a hive of some sort of insect, then tucked it into his sleeve before looking back up at Naraku, who was watching him with malicious amusement.

_His words are false – it is apparent that once I have done his bidding, he will attack to take back the shard that is in the arm, and this hive. But I do not care for his plans... for he cannot harm one such as I. No... though he is deceitful and false, there is no reason I cannot use him as he means to use me._

"Very well. I get the arm you have for me and this hive, and you get Inuyasha's corpse."

With an evil smile, Naraku handed over the arm as well, then stepped back, knowing better than to get too close. He watched as the daiyoukai hefted the arm, no expression on his face, and examined it carefully.

"It is sufficient – barely. As it is from a weak human, however, that is not unexpected. I am sure we will have no reason to speak again, as I am well aware you will be watching to see Inuyasha's demise." With that, he turned and continued on his way, completely dismissing the spider behind him as his thoughts turned to gaining Tessaiga – and seeing Kagome again, up close and personal.

He wondered what she would do upon seeing him.

~oOo~

Kagome was, for the first time in a while, quite content.

Miroku, who, it turned out, was quite the shyster, had gained them lodgings and dinner in the nicest mansion in the area, and all for the price of a false exorcism.

Now, she knew he was lying about the 'ominous black cloud' the moment he spoke of it, but after a week straight of sleeping outdoors with only her ninja food to eat, she was willing to let the whole thing go. After all, though there wasn't any evil around the mansion _now_, that _could_ change, and with ofuda already placed, the mansion would be saved from such a fate. It was kind of like... insurance. And insurance against such things was a perfectly acceptable reason to be paid – in food and lodging.

Inuyasha, though, seemed to have a problem with it, and Kagome almost found it amusing that the one who was always complaining about helping people all the time found it dishonorable to _fake_ helping them. If you were gonna do it, you'd better actually _do_ it, not fake it.

At any rate, her amusement, _and _her contentment was short-lived when what seemed like an earthquake shook the mansion, hard enough to make the floors shift and the entire thing settle farther into the earth.

It didn't take more than an instant for her to realize it wasn't an earthquake, though, but an extremely large opponent heading their way – with a shard of the Shikon no Tama, and within seconds, she and her companions were heading outside at a run.

The moment Kagome's eyes latched on to who was riding on the shoulder of the huge oni, her mind flashed back to the first time she'd seen the sexy – he really was, though evil – half brother of Inuyasha. The reaction to him had her stumbling... and her problem wasn't helped by his heated stare.

He held her gaze for several seconds, and then turned away, his normal arrogant expression when looking at his brother falling over his face.

"So, Inuyasha – you still have the Tessaiga. It is a pity for the fang of our father that you, a weak half-demon, will never be able to wield its full strength." He stood on the shoulder of the oni, and then leapt lightly to the ground, fully aware of Kagome's eyes plastered to him the entire time.

She would get an eyeful of him this night, he would make sure of it. By the time this was over, she would see exactly why he was the much better choice – Inuyasha could not hold a candle to him, missing an arm or not. And, if he played it right, he would also leave with the sword of his father, as well.

A most profitable night, to be sure.

Of course, as with everything to do with Inuyasha lately, things did not go quite as planned...

And a great deal of that had to do with Kagome herself.

He was completely stunned when, just as he was about to finish his wretched sibling's life, an arrow came winging out of nowhere, glowing a blinding pink color, and hit the Tessaiga. Not expecting what came next, he merely frowned at her.

But when the sword's transformation was reversed... once more, she had his entire attention. _Her arrow thwarted Chichi-ue's fang... her energy overpowered his! How is that possible? I knew she was power incarnate, but this... I did not expect._

It angered him. Because if she could overwhelm his sire's great power, then she could be a threat to him, as well.

He turned to his brother, then. "Inuyasha, stop her. Be proud of your demon blood and do not accept the help of a human – even in death," he said sternly, eyes narrowed. He wanted her out of this fight, even if it meant playing along with her supposed 'humanity'.

"Kagome, go. Let me handle him – you go take care of Miroku. He's in bad shape, and the remedies from your time can save him."

Kagome glanced between the two with agonized eyes, but then nodded, and turned to go. She paused for a moment, not looking back, and said, "Be careful, Inuyasha. Your brother's nothing more than a bloodthirsty, cold-hearted, arrogant jerk, and I don't want to see you get hurt." With those provocative words, she ran off, leaving Sesshoumaru behind her with reddened eyes and gritted teeth at her continued defiance.

He knew she wanted him. He'd scented her desire and knew she dreamed of him, knew he was in her mind. But she fought it, instead throwing her support behind his worthless mongrel brother.

Always, it was Inuyasha! Denying him his birthright, denying him his sire's respect, denying him the female he wanted.

His temper rose, and he took it out on the hanyou he hated more than anything in that moment.

The ensuing battle was going quite well for him, and he was enjoying teaching the half-breed his place – until, once again, an arrow came winging at him, and this time, shattered his armor.

He turned to look at her, his eyes glittering angrily. But she ignored the look, and shot at him again; this time, however, he was ready. He caught the arrow before it could hit him, and demonstrating his own power, dissolved it before her reiki could fully ignite, shocking her.

_She is too determined. I must get her out of this fight, now, before she gets truly harmed. Since the Tessaiga is only partially transformed, I can hit her with that. It will simply knock her out. _

"If you will not stay out of the way on your own, then I will have to make you," he gritted. With that, he swung, using only a fraction of the sword's power, and watched as she didn't even attempt to run, simply bracing for the blow.

Of course, Inuyasha wasn't about to allow her to be hit, thinking the blow would kill her, and shielded her with his own body. But it was enough, and she was now unconscious – which was what he had wanted. He was even further pleased when the hanyou exhorted the monk to remove her from the area, though he watched through narrowed eyes to make sure the lecher kept his hands in respectable places.

But it seemed that when Kagome was involved, his little brother became most determined, and the fight quickly ended with him managing to take the Tessaiga back – even though desperately wounded. With the human arm partially ripped off, and unable to now get to the sword which was still responding to an unconscious Inuyasha's – unneeded, had he but known it - determination to protect the girl, he decided to leave, and come back another time.

Glancing once more back at a now awake Kagome, he met her resentful eyes with his own hot ones...

And then turned and left, still not having gained what he desired.

But he was in no way ready to give up. No... she, _and_ the sword, would one day be his.

He was willing to do just about anything to have them both – but her most of all.

~oOo~

The one thing Sesshoumaru had not counted on as a result of his attack was that Inuyasha would attempt to send her home through the well – permanently. When he found out, he was furious, but did not know what he could do, since he could not get through the well.

If she did not manage to return, he really _would_ kill the whelp, Tessaiga notwithstanding.

Helpless, really, to do anything about Kagome's loss, which did not sit well, he let his vengeful thoughts turn back to Naraku, instead.

That one would pay for attempting what he had.

As if a shard of that weak jewel would allow the wretched hanyou to control he, Sesshoumaru. Much as he'd always disdained Inuyasha as a half-breed, at least he had come by his blood honestly – Naraku couldn't even claim that. It didn't take more than the hanyou's scent to tell the daiyoukai how he had become what he was. Nothing more than many weak, pathetic youkai combined with a human shell. At least Inuyasha's demon blood was of the highest and most powerful, and even his human blood was royal, unlike Naraku, whose human body was nothing more than the pathetic, burned out flesh of a bandit with dishonorable blood.

"Disgusting. That a weak being such as Naraku thought to control me. For his presumption, he will pay." Sesshoumaru absently stared at his hand, flexing it as the knuckles popped ominously. "If he had wanted Inuyasha dead so badly, he should have sought it by his own hand. It was his own foolishness that involved me – and it will be his last mistake."

Jaken was extremely nervous. He knew his master was angry on several fronts, and had been going over everything he could think of to get his Lord to calm down. He_ had _found something that might help...

"Master... this humble Jaken might know of a way to get the girl back," he quavered, cringing in fear of a kick. After there was silence for a moment, he dared to peek out at Sesshoumaru. His master's eyes were on him, intent.

"Explain. If I like what I hear, I will not kill you."

Jaken nodded hastily. "When the half-breed sent her back, he took her shards from her, because she could not get through the well without them. The young kit that now travels with them... he is angry at Inuyasha for pushing her away and planting that tree in the well to keep her from coming back. I think that I can get him to take the shard that Inuyasha took from her and go to the well – he is small enough to get in even with the tree. It might be enough to call her back through."

Sesshoumaru stared at him for several seconds with no expression on his face, and then turned away to look at the sky. Jaken breathed a sigh of relief to find himself still breathing.

"Do it. But do not fail. Your life rides on her return."

Scrambling away, Jaken couldn't help but bemoan what his life had become. Always with the death threats! And after all his faithful service, too.

Nonetheless, he set out to follow his plan... because if he tried to get away, instead, Sesshoumaru would track him down and kill him. There was no escape from the daiyoukai, so all he could hope for was to succeed in this scheme, so he could keep breathing for a few more days.

Maybe someday, if his master got the Tessaiga and the girl, he would not need his servant anymore, and he could return to his home in the swamps of the Western Lands.

He could only wish such a fate would befall him.

~oOo~

It had been several weeks since Kagome's successful – to Jaken's extreme relief – return, and much had happened in that time. Once again, Sesshoumaru had attempted to take the sword, only this time, Inuyasha had unlocked the potential of Tessaiga, unleashing the wind scar against his older brother.

Despite that, Tenseiga had reacted, saving the daiyoukai from certain death, stealing him away to safety.

No one had heard anything of him for some time after that, and Kagome had begun to actually worry, though she would never admit such a thing aloud. But she had so much going on in her own life that she hadn't had to be concerned that anyone would figure out her fear for what was essentially one of their enemies.

They had gained two new companions – ones with a serious need for revenge against Naraku. Sango, and her companion, the firecat Kirara.

Naraku had tricked the proud taijiya clan, then stolen her little brother's mind and forced him to kill all of his family. Sango was the only survivor of the attacks – both the one on her family, and the one on her village, which had razed it to the ground and killed everyone within it.

Then the bastard had convinced the grief-stricken young woman that Inuyasha was responsible, and giving her a shard to help her fight through her very serious injuries, had set her loose on the hanyou and his group.

Thankfully, that hadn't worked out, and once the young woman realized the truth of the matter, she had turned her mind to gaining vengeance from the _right_ person.

The wretched spider had used a shard of the jewel to resurrect the taijiya's tormented brother once Sango had realized the truth of who her enemy was, and used him to taunt her constantly, even getting her to steal the Tessaiga trying to save him. The plan had failed, and Kagome herself, angered beyond anything she could ever remember had saved them all from Naraku's trap with an explosion of power that had _almost_ killed the traitorous hanyou – and _had_ completely destroyed his body as well as blowing a nice big hole in his stolen castle.

Even Inuyasha, who was always telling her she was useless, had praised her then. She'd been rightfully stunned when he had, too, having expected him to berate her for not actually managing to kill the kumo.

And then... Kikyou stealing the jewel shards she had and giving them to Naraku.

That had given the hanyou a burst of power he really hadn't needed, and now he had created very powerful incarnations of himself – Kagura, the wind witch, Kanna, the void, and then... Goshinki – who had broken the Tessaiga, and let loose Inuyasha's inner demon.

That had been probably the most frightening thing to Kagome. To see the bloodthirsty glee in his crimson eyes, and to know that the demon within craved nothing more than the blood of everything around him.

The truth of what he was had been thrust into the forefront of her mind, then, and she wondered – why, when he went full demon, did he lose his mind, and yet, Sesshoumaru did not?

It was an answer that no one had, although if anyone knew, it would be Sesshoumaru – though asking him probably wouldn't do any good.

When they finally saw the daiyoukai again, Kagome was ashamed of the fact that a certain tension she hadn't even noticed inside herself eased up, allowing her to breathe a little bit easier. Her eyes had been glued to him from the moment he'd appeared again before them all, despite the danger he represented.

But this Sesshoumaru was just a little different – and this time, he wasn't after the Tessaiga. No... he had come to claim the sword that Kaijinbo had forged – one with an evil aura that sent Kagome's flesh crawling. She watched, eyes widening in horror as he drew the sword out of the ground, afraid that it's evil would affect his mind.

She should have known that one as proud as him would never submit his will to _anyone. _

They had managed to get out of that confrontation intact - at least, everyone else had. But Kagome...

Kagome hadn't. Because every time they encountered the dangerous daiyoukai, she left another little piece of herself with him.

She could only be thankful that contact with him was sporadic, because if he was constantly around, she knew she wouldn't have been able to deny him for very long at all.

Much as she hated to admit it, he drew her in ways she had no experience with, and so couldn't fight. Wicked or not, she wanted him, she was drawn to him, and she would be unable to fight it for too much longer.

Eventually, he would have her...

And she knew it.


	4. The Awakening

**Chapter 4: The Awakening**

"_No! I don't want you! I don't want to go with you! I won't!"_

"_You lie – to yourself and to me. But I can wait, little woman - you will only last so long, and then your need will overwhelm you. When that time arrives, I will come – and then it will all be over for you, make no mistake. You will be mine, willingly – you merely delay the inevitable with your caviling."_

With a gasp, Kagome sat up in her sleeping bag, frantic eyes searching the camp first for those she might have disturbed with her once more restless sleep, and then the surrounding forest for a glimpse of the male she _knew_ was close by.

She could feel him.

She could _always_ feel him.

_Leave me alone! _she wanted to scream – but she couldn't, because not only would those words not leave her mouth, but she would then have to answer far too many pointed questions from Inuyasha - and Miroku, as well. Even Sango would begin to wonder, and Kagome couldn't handle the thought of any of her companions finding out about her little problem.

_Little problem? No... more like huge, insurmountable problem, _she whimpered, tears clouding her vision. Tears of frustration and of desire. _Why does life have to be so complicated! I wish I could just go home..._

She'd really considered doing just that, more than once, actually. But the problem was, even if she _could_ live with the guilt she'd feel for abandoning her companions and her duty, she had the feeling that she'd find Sesshoumaru looming over her the moment she climbed out of the well on her side of it.

Inuyasha had been the one to tell her that as a full inuyoukai, his brother was pretty much immortal. Oh, he could be killed, but otherwise, age and illness could not lay hands on him. She'd despaired, then, of ever getting away from him and she'd been trying very hard since that day to keep her fear and depression away from her friends.

But the truth of the matter was that when he'd given her that little bit of information she'd lost all hope, because unless someone managed to kill Sesshoumaru between now and her era, which she didn't see happening, then she had no way of escaping him.

He would, eventually, manage to break her down and take her, just as he'd told her he would – even if she escaped into the future and he was forced to wait the five hundred years. She somehow already knew without even having to think about it that he would do so, though not happily, and then he'd find a way to punish her for running across time to get away from him. Yes, he'd eventually be able to break her down, since she couldn't even run away...

And she was beginning to wonder if she'd even be able to care by the time it happened, because she was fully certain that by the time she folded, she'd no longer even desire to fight him – she'd be his willingly.

The whole situation frightened the living daylights out of her, and she couldn't even talk to anyone about it. And because of that, she was feeling more and more isolated from her family in the future and even her friends here.

_He's probably counting on that feeling growing until I can no longer deny him, the bastard, _she thought belligerently. She wanted so badly to able to say she hated him – and that thought hurt something inside, because she'd never wanted to hate anyone before.

She wasn't made to hate, and that was proven as even with circumstances as they were, she just couldn't bring herself to actually do it.

Miserable, her face dropped into her hands and she let out a shuddering sigh. _I'm making so much noise - I'm surprised Inuyasha isn't breathing down my neck already. _She frowned, that thought penetrating her muddled thoughts slowly, and she looked up, glancing around trying to find red fire rat in a tree. There was no sign of him; however, once she looked up, there was every sign of glowing shinidamachu circling a spot in the forest a little ways away on a small rise.

Letting out a strangled laugh that sounded more sob than anything mirthful, she crawled to her feet and headed towards the small stream a few clearings away in the opposite direction, needing the cool water to calm her overheated blood and wash away the scent of tears.

_So he left us alone again to go chase Kikyou. I shouldn't be surprised – after all, it was not that long ago that she tried to kill me and stole my shards, only to turn around and give them to Naraku, and Inuyasha didn't even seem phased. And with him just having managed to lighten Tessaiga again, we may as well have been sitting ducks this whole time. So what does it matter if we're sitting ducks again because he's gone off to see that woman?_

The situation with Kikyou and Inuyasha left Kagome nothing but confused. She didn't know how to feel about the woman she'd been in a past life, let alone with the fact that woman was now running around again, powered by a piece of her soul and the stolen souls of other women. What a confusing thing to be faced with – and that, on top of Sesshoumaru, and all the chaos he was introducing into her once straightforward and calm life!

Even with Inuyasha's choice of Kikyou over their friendship, she'd decided after a week spent at home that she needed to stay, needed to finish what she'd started, and so she'd swallowed her pride and her tears and asked Inuyasha if he'd let her stay by his side. He had seemed thankful, truthfully, for her desire to stay, and things had seemingly gone back to normal between them, despite Kikyou. But she had slowly realized that nothing would really be the same again, and he was proving that with every time he ran off to see the other woman, leaving them all undefended and in danger, all for a shade of the past.

Reaching the small stream, she knelt down at the edge and cupped some water in her hands before splashing her face with the cool liquid. It felt good, and she sighed as she sat back a little and watched idly as the water rushed by, babbling cheerfully as it washed over the mossy stones in its path.

It was bright out, the full moon being reflected in the water, but even with that, she didn't notice the shadow that fell over her, nor the face that appeared over her shoulder for several seconds, too spellbound by the night and her chaotic thoughts.

It was the warm breath that washed over her cheek that warned her that her nemesis was crouched right behind her.

"So the half-breed leaves you undefended to go philander with the undead and traitorous miko," Sesshoumaru purred, taking in a deep pull of her intoxicating scent. He'd missed her scent's full potency for the last weeks as he'd been caught up in other matters, though he had never been too far away from her. His brother could not be trusted to see to her safety, as he proved more and more every day, and he would not leave her vulnerable to any other but himself. "Why am I not surprised?"

Kagome's breath caught in her throat at his nearness, fear and desire surging through her and heating her blood. She froze, caught between fight or flight... but really, neither was actually possible, and so she remained frozen and unable to move as the daiyoukai took advantage of that and ran his nose down her cheek, continuing to scent her.

"Go away, Sesshoumaru," she finally managed to get out around a tight throat, a small glimmer of anger breaking a part of the spell on her at his nearness.

He tensed; she could feel it as close as he was to her. "And still you fight me, and yourself," he whispered in her ear, his breath making her shiver and her eyesight go black for a moment as desire surged. "While your recalcitrance frustrates me, I am also impressed with your will – you are strong. Too strong for that whelp that thinks he owns you."

"K-Kouga-kun?" she stuttered, confused for a second.

A low, vibrating growl made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and she shivered in visceral reaction.

"Either," he answered, dangerous anger edging his voice. "The wolf is as weak as Inuyasha – it is shameful that he claims full youkai blood. Then again, ookami are not much better than low level youkai. They are certainly nearly as brainless," he stated with derision. "And if he chooses to be brainless enough to lay a hand on you again, he will also be limbless." Sesshoumaru had been livid when he'd found out about his newest rival, the wolf prince Kouga and his declaration of 'love', and would have no compunction at all about killing him if he didn't back off of the female he'd already claimed as his.

That elicited a reaction in Kagome; she made a move as if to turn around to berate the inuyoukai for his attitude but instead, made unsteady by his nearness, she started to fall forward towards the water. Resigned to falling in and getting nice and cold, she was stunned to instead feel an arm like a steel band come around her waist and pull her back into a firm, warm body. She stiffened, her heart fluttering like a trapped bird at his proximity.

He smirked with triumph; he could feel her heart stuttering with desire, the only fear in her scent a fear of her own needs, and not of him. Slowly, so slowly she was breaking and soon she would come to him, unable to stay away any longer.

Tightening the pressure of his hand against her belly, he pressed it flat to her and pulled her back into him even more as he stood, pulling her up with him, careful to avoid damaging her skin on the spikes of his armor. Lowering his head slowly, he nuzzled into her neck and, unable to help himself, pressed an open-mouthed kiss to her sensitive skin, his tongue coming out to taste her tender flesh.

A low moan broke from his throat and he shuddered, his own vocalization only overpowered by her slightly louder moan of need. "You taste of sweetness and seduction all at once," he growled, a peculiar edge of pain to his voice that captured Kagome's attention, confusing her. "That hanyou is truly a fool to prefer the scent and feel of cold, dead clay to the warmth of a living nymph," he finished, continuing to nuzzle and kiss his way up her neck to her ear, where he nipped at the lobe. A smirk tilted his lips at her inhaling gasp.

"S-stop it," she choked out, having to fight harder than she'd ever fought before to get those two words out. Because the truth was, her body didn't want him to stop – and neither did her heart and soul. It was only her mind that was still fighting him, and its struggles were growing weaker with every day that passed.

A wicked, wicked chuckle emanated from him at her words, once again submerging her mind into what he was doing to her. "Why should I?" he asked darkly. "You do not really want me to stop. Oh, no, little woman-child, you do not want me to stop. You want me to go further... like this," he whispered hotly into her ear, savoring the faint cry that was torn from her as his heated breath caressed her sensitive flesh again. He accompanied his words with the movement of his hand, a slick, slow slide up her quivering belly to cup a breast.

Kagome was stunned at the feel of his hand touching such a forbidden place; her eyes widened until the whites were showing all around and her breath froze in her throat as his long fingers slid over the now painfully hard tip of it. She almost blacked out at the surge of intense need as terrible, wonderful arousal flooded through her veins, and weak tears welled up in her now tightly clenched eyes.

"N-no," she moaned, her opposing desires clashing fiercely within her and tearing pieces of her psyche away. "_Why?_ Why are you doing this to me?" she cried suddenly, trying to pull away as the completely opposite states of her heart and her mind began to leave her floundering, not even sure who she was and what she really wanted anymore.

Sesshoumaru reluctantly let her move away from him just a little, but unable to bear letting go quite yet, the moment she turned to face him, her beautiful little face illuminated by the moonlight that sparkled off the tears on her cheeks, he pulled her back, answering her query with passion rather than words.

White light filled Kagome's mind as Sesshoumaru took her lips with no hesitation, engaging her with every bit of his always formidable confidence. Unable to deny his demand, she let her mouth fall open as his tongue tempted her past all reason, slipping inside her mouth with a languid heat that swept every doubt from her mind and left only him behind, instead.

A full body shudder wracked Sesshoumaru's tense frame as her taste rushed over his senses, erasing any thought from his mind but the need to taste more – to taste all of her. That need turned him aggressive; within the space of a heartbeat he tilted his head and took every bit of depth he could, his tongue sliding against hers so sweetly that it pulled a deep relishing sound from the normally much more controlled daiyoukai.

Kagome was in pain. Instead of his touch easing the hunger she felt for him, it only seemed to intensify it, and if he didn't stop soon, she'd give in to him right here on the banks of this small stream with her companions less then fifty feet away. She'd never felt anything like this in her life, and she knew that she would never be the same again after this encounter.

Plump lips bruised with passion hissed as Sesshoumaru finally pulled away, needing air as badly as she did, and the daiyoukai was entirely captivated by the way she looked, ravished and needy – and all at his hands, not his bastard half-brother's.

Despite Inuyasha's seeming inability to resist the undead miko, Sesshoumaru was well aware that his idiot sibling had very deep feelings for Kagome, as well, and indeed, he'd wanted to encourage just such a thing so that when Kagome finally left to come to him, it would devastate the boy. That had been the reason he'd left her with Inuyasha in the first place.

But suddenly, the fact that the brat had feelings for her at all loomed in his mind like a specter, leaving a taste of uneasiness behind; he knew that Kagome also held feelings for Inuyasha, though they weren't ones of passion and need, still, they were the reason she was fighting him so hard. He hadn't considered that when he'd decided to leave her with the boy, and now he was not so certain that he wanted to continue to allow her to stay with him – he didn't want her to gain the strength to defy him due to growing feelings of familial love and loyalty towards Inuyasha.

On the other hand, however, he knew that if he tried to force her to come to him now, he'd lose any ground he'd gained – and he knew, just from her response, that he'd gained quite a bit, despite her desire to fight him. His fingers tightened in her raven locks in frustration at the realization that despite the danger of leaving her with the hanyou, he'd have to, or end up making her hate him, instead.

And while she would still desire him even if her emotions disdained him, simple physical desire was not all he wanted from her. No... if that were all there were, his hold on her would be tenuous at best.

In order for him to have her the way he wanted, he'd have to have all of her – heart and soul, body and mind. He needed her to fall in love with him, and kidnapping her and forcing her to stay with him would pretty much make certain that he would never gain her heart, soul, or mind, only her body.

With more reluctance than he'd ever felt before, he stepped back, letting her hair slide through his fingers slowly as he met her slumbrous gaze. "You want to know why?" he finally asked, his husky voice making her shiver visibly, to his great satisfaction. "Because I want you, Kagome. I want every bit of you, and no other will do. If I cannot have you, I will have no other – unlike a certain hanyou I could name, who cannot even decide who to give his tattered loyalty and betrayal-stained honor to."

"His loyalty isn't tattered," she retorted, her voice also husky, to her shame.

"No? At least I know who I am looking at, Ka-go-me," he fired back, the barb hitting her heart with deadly accuracy, "unlike Inuyasha. The dead have no hold on me - I would never mistake you for anyone else – and we both know the hanyou already has."

"You can't buy my loyalty with pretty words, Sesshoumaru," she snapped, the haze finally burning away from her mind as anger and hurt feelings rose. She couldn't stand the thought that he was right – Inuyasha _had_ already mistaken her for Kikyou – and he, Sesshoumaru, knew her as Kagome, and no one else. That fact hurt. "I won't betray Inuyasha just because he's in love with Kikyou. He's my friend, though I don't expect someone like you to understand that. I'll protect him from you if it's the last thing I do, which is another thing you will never understand!"

His eyes narrowed; she could see she'd hit him with that arrow, and something inside was shocked into stillness to see a flash of hurt in those deadly eyes. She watched, stunned, as he withdrew and stepped back more, and then turned to walk away.

She would forever wish she hadn't heard the words that came ghosting back out of the darkness that had swallowed him.

"If that were true, Kagome, then you and your companions would have been dead several times over. Who do you think has kept you all safe while the half-breed was unable to even lift his sword? And who do you think protects you all while he trysts with the traitorous miko that has betrayed you to Naraku more than once?"

The words were quietly spoken as they drifted out of the silence under the trees, but she heard them as if they'd been shouted; she felt their impact all the way to her very soul.

_Is that why we've survived all of what's happened lately? I've wondered why Naraku hasn't attacked while Inuyasha's been so helpless without being able to really use Tessaiga... _she thought hazily.

His words had just turned her entire world upside down.

She didn't think it would ever be righted again.

~oOo~

"Where the hell have you been?" a low, growling voice crashed into her out of the darkness ahead, waking Kagome from her confusion and shock as she stumbled back into camp.

She was so dazed, however, that his first words barely skimmed the surface.

"Hm?"

It was his furious anger once he'd gotten close enough to scent her that fully woke her up – along with the rest of the camp.

"What the fuck were you doing with Sesshoumaru, bitch?" he snarled, his eyes actually flashing red for a split second.

Suddenly angry that he had the nerve to say anything to her after who he'd been with, leaving them all vulnerable to attack, Kagome turned on him and let loose in a low, vehement voice that shocked everyone speechless for its ferocity – a ferocity that was usually so alien to her personality.

"I'll tell you where I've been after you tell me where _you_ were, Inuyasha!" she snapped hotly. "How the hell you have the nerve to ask me anything when you actually left us unprotected _yet again_ to go off to see your dead girlfriend is beyond me!"

Flushing redly with anger, embarrassment and guilt, Inuyasha sputtered for several seconds when the others, who were all well awake by now and listening to the argument avidly, cut dark looks his way. It took a few moments, but then he yelled, "That bastard is our enemy, bitch – he's tried to kill us! It's almost as bad as you sneaking off to see Naraku!"

"And Kikyou's also our enemy, one who's tried to kill us, and _has_ betrayed us to Naraku – yet what were you doing? I don't want to hear another word, Inuyasha," she snarled dangerously. "I didn't go looking for Sesshoumaru – I just went to get a cool drink from the stream and wash my face after a nightmare – _you_ actually went off looking for that woman!"

Unable to deny her words and angry because of that, Inuyasha started to open his mouth to throw some insult or another, but then faltered and fell back, staring in shock at Kagome as she actually flipped him a rude gesture. He recognized it quite well after his time spent in her era, and was totally stunned at her use of it.

"If you say one damn word, dog boy," she said, her voice icy, "I'll 'o' word you straight into the afterlife. I'm in no mood for your double standards, you idiot. At least Sesshoumaru didn't try to kill me, steal my shards, and then turn and give them to Naraku, making him so much stronger and allowing him to kill hundreds more innocent people. If anyone here could be called a traitor, it would be _Kikyou_," she spat the name she was fast coming to hate hearing, "no matter what excuse she tries to make for her actions. Plain and simple – if she hadn't done what she did, we most likely could have already finished this whole mess."

With that, she turned her back on him and went over to her sleeping bag, crawling inside it and zipping the thing right up over her head, in no mood to deal with the hanyou and his blind worship of Kikyou. If he wanted to believe her false words and lying eyes, that was his problem, and more fool him.

The silence in the camp was palpable as the others, Sango and Miroku, Shippo and even Kirara glared at a pale and angry Inuyasha, before turning to each other and speaking, blatantly acting as though he weren't even there.

"I think we should start taking turns on watch every night when we stop, since we can't rely on a certain someone else to stay and actually keep watch. I wouldn't want to be woken out of a deep sleep by coming under attack by Naraku or anyone else," Sango said, her voice cold.

Miroku sighed, but nodded. "Perhaps that would be a good idea," he had to agree. It was too dangerous to sleep out in the wilds with no one on watch.

"I can help keep watch, too," Shippo piped up. "If something were coming I could warn everyone!"

"I don't really think there's a need for any of that," came Kagome's voice, still cold and angry, though muffled by her sleeping bag.

Everyone looked over at her sleeping bag, even the fuming Inuyasha. "Why is that, Kagome?" Sango asked, confused.

"Because Sesshoumaru has been keeping watch over us."

"What?" she said blankly, dumbfounded. "How do you know?"

"He told me, how else would I know?"

"And you fuckin' believed him, you stupid bitch?" Inuyasha practically screamed. "Why?!"

She popped out of her bag at that and shot him the deadliest look of rage anyone had ever seen on her face, instantly shutting him up. "Because we're all still here, you blind fool! After all of this time with you basically helpless and unable to really wield Tessaiga, Naraku could have easily attacked and taken us down, and yet... we're all still safe and even relatively unscathed. Hasn't anyone actually thought about that and wondered why we've been so free of attack? And especially when you keep running off and leaving us all alone, sleeping deeply and_ thinking _we're safe!? Funny that, wouldn't you say? We certainly haven't been safe because of _your_ ass," she finished acidly, her temper overriding her usual distaste for casual profanity.

Inuyasha was left without a leg to stand on and he knew it, her words condemning his actions with lethal efficiency. But he could not stand the thought of his brother watching Kagome in any fashion whatsoever, and with narrowing, dangerous eyes, he let her know it in no uncertain terms.

"Keh - the only reason he's doing that is 'cause he wants to get up your skirt, you baka bitch!" He flinched a little at her angry intake of breath, but continued on, too angry himself to back down or even speak with a little more caution. "Don't get used to that bastard watching anything, Kagome, because the next time I see him I'm going to kill him, and that will be the end of it!"

For some reason, Kagome actually calmed as he spoke, a sarcastic, mocking chuckle echoing loudly in the clearing as the fascinated onlookers watched, curious as to what would be said next.

"That'll be the day, Inuyasha," she retorted acerbically. "You won't ever be able to defeat your brother, no matter how big you talk, and we all know it, so stop with the ridiculous posturing. _Grow up_." She started to turn around and slide back into her bedding, but then paused and said over her shoulder, "I'm getting really tired of dealing with a perpetual child. As long as you are trysting with the enemy, you have no right to even question who I might or might not be speaking to. _End of discussion._"

With that, completely ignoring the elevated youki of her hanyou companion and his almost out-of-control temper, along with the titillated shock of their friends, Kagome curled herself back up into her sleeping bag and pointedly closed her eyes, regulating her breathing and paying no attention to anything else as she drifted off into a troubled sleep – the hurt look she'd surprised in Sesshoumaru's eyes with her earlier caustic words haunting her as dreams took over. It left her feeling guilty for what she'd said, guilty for hurting someone who seemed so invulnerable and even unemotional, and yet, clearly wasn't exactly what she'd thought he was... what his half-brother insisted he was. What _he_ portrayed himself as.

Inuyasha, deprived of his target, knowing she wouldn't respond again no matter what he said, bared his fangs in frustration and then jumped into a tree, folding his arms into his sleeves. He tried very hard to calm himself down, beginning to get a headache from all the strong emotions he'd been faced with this day. He paid not a whit of attention to those still on the ground and awake, not even deigning to listen in to their soft conversation as his own thoughts were more than enough to keep him busy and stewing in his impotent anger.

"Inuyasha's crazy," Shippo announced huffily, glaring into the tree the hanyou had disappeared into. "Sesshoumaru isn't just playing around – he really wants Kagome, unlike a certain blockhead we all know."

Miroku, taken aback at the kit's rather adult grasp of the situation, frowned. "What do you mean, Shippo?"

"I mean that Sesshoumaru wants Kagome, and he wants her bad enough to be protecting her. A youkai that just wants-" his little cheeks warmed up a bit at what he was about to say, "-what Inuyasha said, wouldn't bother to go so far as to be constantly watching over the female, let alone any companions she had."

"So you are saying that his interest in her is not casual?" the monk asked, brow furrowed as he considered what was being said.

It was Sango's voice that answered his query, instead.

"Definitely not. If he's truly been watching over all of us, then he considers her of the utmost importance – it certainly isn't for our sakes that he's been doing so," Sango stated quietly, though with authority. "I think that's why Inuyasha's so angry about his brother 'sniffing around', as he put it once. He knows that his brother's serious, and we all know that, despite his idiocy over that impure miko, he considers Kagome his. It's an inu trait. He feels threatened by his brother's interest in Kagome, and that's why he's so aggressive whenever Sesshoumaru approaches us."

It was apparent that Miroku hadn't known any of that, and was now reevaluating much of their confrontations with the daiyoukai in the light of his new insight into Sesshoumaru's actions. His frown deepened as things that had left him wondering before suddenly began fitting into place.

"It's not really the sword that he's even after anymore, is it?" he asked slowly as the realization dawned. "I had wondered why he seemed so adamant on confronting Inuyasha even after having his own sword forged. He has that one and it is quite potent, so why would he need Tessaiga? He's simply using it as an excuse to confront Kagome – to make sure she cannot forget his presence," he finished, his voice heavy with new understanding. "He's imprinting himself indelibly into her psyche."

"Aa," Sango replied as Shippo nodded, and even Kirara joined in, mewing her agreement.

As a full youkai and an adult, she was actually the one that understood the best just what was going on. Shippo, while a full blood, was still young, and some things did go over his head. Not so with her. She had smelled Sesshoumaru's interest and his desire for Kagome from the first time she'd encountered him. She mewed at Shippo, who then passed her message on.

"Kirara says that Sesshoumaru has the scent of a male that is looking for a mate," he said, his blush deepening. "And that she's surprised that Inuyasha didn't notice-" he blinked in surprise of his own, "-but Sesshoumaru has now marked Kagome in a permanent manner with his scent, probably tonight when he met her at the stream like she said he did. It's a betrothal mark, so that all other youkai will know to stay away."

Sango's eyes widened considerably at that, and her gaze went from Shippo to her longtime feline companion in dismay. "He's gone so far as to mark her in such a way?" she asked, stunned and wanting to be sure she wasn't hearing wrong. She sighed as Kirara mewed at her, nodding her head in affirmation. "Oh, dear gods," she said under her breath. "When Inuyasha finally gets a good whiff of that mark and realizes what it means, he's going to go insane. As if he weren't already unstable enough."

Everyone had to agree with that sentiment, and they all drifted off into their own troubled thoughts, slowly allowing sleep to once more claim them as the events of the evening finally wore them all out and the silence lulled them back into their dreams.

Tomorrow was soon enough to deal with whatever hell was next to come.


	5. A Slow Simmer

**Chapter 5: A Slow Simmer**

Kagome was really getting tired of waking up in the same manner – shocked awake by dreams of Sesshoumaru. It was no different this time as she bolted upright, eyes flying open in stunned dismay and with his wild male scent still tainting her memory of the dream that she'd just awakened from with a gasped, "No!" echoing around the camp.

It took her several seconds to realize where she was and then she slumped, lowering her head in open misery into her hands as she tried to fight back tears. This dream, this time, had been worse than all the others – after he'd touched her and kissed her last night, waking her innocent body to the fierce claws that passion was made of, she'd dreamed of that same passion – and more.

She could still see him as he'd been in that dream, his beautiful body bared before her as he pressed himself to her, whispering of his desire for her, his need of her and _only_ her. It was such a seductive concept that he wanted only her that she almost instinctively knew that she would give in to him, and sooner rather than later.

But she didn't want to give in... did she?

"No," she moaned in denial of what her heart, body, and soul was telling her. She tried so hard to deny herself, to deny what she was beginning to want so badly she could taste it, but she couldn't. Because she _did_ want the daiyoukai – with an almost single-minded fixation that was coming to resemble his obsession with her.

_Oh, gods... what am I going to do? _she wondered in barely controlled panic.

A soft voice coming from almost directly in front of her startled her out of her downward-spiraling thoughts as effectively as ice water would a sleeping person.

"Kagome-chan, are you okay?" Sango asked, eyeing her friend with concern. After the events and revelations of the previous night she was pretty certain she knew exactly where the young woman's angst was coming from. She hadn't decided how to tell her that the daiyoukai had marked her, because she was certain that the girl would lose it when she found out.

Kagome sucked in a cleansing breath and forcibly shut her mind down, shoving her nightmarish thoughts to the back of it. After a moment of silence, she lifted her head to look at her friend. "Aa. I'll be okay," she said softly, her voice not much above a whisper. "Just... bad dreams." She couldn't stop the little voice inside that called her a liar and highlighted her wanting dreams, though – could she honestly call them bad when they left her trembling with desire? Not honestly. She merely _wished_ she could say they were bad and be telling the truth.

Even as Sango looked at her doubtfully Kagome pulled herself to her feet and grabbed her bag, then started off for the river, drawn back to the same place she'd met Sesshoumaru last night. As she moved slowly into the small clearing along its banks that had seen their impromptu tryst the night before, Kagome's eyes were drawn to her shoe prints in the dirt. Funny enough, despite the daiyoukai's forceful presence, there was no physical sign he'd ever been there.

Stumbling back to the same spot, she knelt and stared into the water almost as if expecting to see him again, as she had last night. But he wasn't there, and something inside felt raw and empty at that – something she refused to acknowledge. Shaking her head fiercely, denying her need of his touch to herself again as if thinking it often enough would make it true, Kagome drew her pack to her and dug through it, pulling out her little plastic pouch that she kept her toothpaste and toothbrush in and began her morning, refusing to think any further about the one that her soul was beginning to cry out for.

_I don't want him, I don't need him!_

Somehow the now familiar litany didn't bring her any comfort – because her heart was still naming her a liar.

~oOo~

_He isn't strong enough to protect her as he is, his defeat of Ryukotsussei notwithstanding, _Sesshoumaru thought from his spot far above his brother's group as they walked along a dusty road.

_Too many times they barely scrape by, making it out of confrontations more by luck than anything – and luck is too fickle for my tastes. Like that fight with Naraku's human alias, Muso. I will not leave her to be killed because he is too weak. _

For days now he'd felt Naraku's influence dancing on the winds and knew that he was planning something new, so he had refused to leave the little group to his brother's oversight. The boy was so busy thinking of his dead miko that he hadn't even caught on to the betrothal mark he'd scented Kagome with when he'd touched her on the banks of that river a few weeks ago.

A brisk breeze flashed past him, sweeping the white silk strands he called hair around him and bringing with it a faint scent of Naraku's miasma. Sesshoumaru wrinkled his nose just slightly in disgust. _He taints even what he does not touch. But he cannot taint Kagome, _he thought, a tiny smirk curling his lip with haughty condescension. _Every time he has tried he has failed. _

He had not missed what had transpired with Naraku's feint using the dark priestess and the tainted shards of the jewel to try to control her mind. He'd failed at that, as well. Sesshoumaru had been very close to intervening when Inuyasha was busy playing with Tsubaki's pet youkai, leaving Kagome open to attack – but he'd held back when he'd watched her send the dark miko's curse right back at her, overpowering her evil spell with her pure spirit magic just as she'd overwhelmed his father's energy in the transformed Tessaiga. Yet despite all Naraku could throw at her, her purity remained intact and unblemished.

Still, the purity that she carried that so disturbed Naraku and left him with a need to attempt to poison it did nothing to truly protect her from anyone else. And this was Sesshoumaru's problem – what could he do to make sure she would be safe?

True, he followed behind the group of spider hunters and watched over her as best he could from a distance. But what if he did not arrive in time during some skirmish or had other business that took him from his vigilance of her? If he lost her to his brother's negligence, Inuyasha would pay with his life - painfully. He, Sesshoumaru, would make sure of it.

_So what else can I do to make sure the whelp has the power to protect what I have claimed until I can take her away from him and do it myself - openly? _

Unable to decide on an answer so easily, his mind moved into other channels and he considered Naraku for a time. _Weak. He is a hanyou, and not even an honest one. He is below even Inuyasha, _he thought, his lip curling just slightly in distaste. _He hides himself away and sends even weaker incarnations and puppets to fight for him. _That thought brought to mind his last run-in with one of those incarnations.

Kagura.

_Hmph. She tried to bribe me to do what she could not. As if I have any need to team up with a mere cast-off of a created hanyou – or any need for the false power of a black and spoiled jewel. _

Of course, despite his disinterest in the jewel itself, thoughts of it brought him right back to his true interest – it's mistress. But this time, the memory of Kagura's visit had brought an idea to mind... a way to make sure that Inuyasha would be able to better protect Kagome.

Taking one last look at the figures of his half-brother's group of companions and the one who belonged to him though she still fought it, he turned away from them and set a different course.

_Hn, _he thought once more with cynical amusement, _at least you were useful for something, Kagura. Too bad it will most likely never happen again._

With that, he cast the wind witch from his mind and disappeared into the horizon.

~oOo~

Sesshoumaru was livid.

Again.

It seemed to be an almost permanent state lately. And as always, it was due to Inuyasha. Usually it was the whelp's mere existence that had him angry, but now it was that fact, coupled with his constant failures in protecting what belonged to he, Sesshoumaru, that had caused it.

Once again Kagome had fallen into danger, and the fool had been powerless to protect her. But this time... oh, this time his anger was not confined to his half-sibling alone. Oh, no... this time, his father's old enemies the panther youkai were at fault, as well. Apparently, Touran had decided it was time for a rematch. And for some reason, they were attempting to lure Inuyasha to their hiding place, too – and because of that, they'd taken Kagome as the bait.

But wouldn't Touran be getting a surprise – because she was going to get two for the price of one, since there was no way he was leaving Kagome to their machinations or Inuyasha's inept rescue attempts. And once she was once again safe, he would have to speed up his plan to make sure Inuyasha was capable of taking better care of her – it was ridiculous that almost any weak youkai could come in and take her right out from under his even weaker nose.

_Utterly shameful, that Chichi-ue's blood has been brought so low. And now, in order to protect what is mine, I am forced to give the hanyou aid I would never have given were he not so frail._

The thought of having to actually _help_ his fool of a half-brother in any way made him burn with anger – but it was not enough to make him reconsider his desire for the female that was pure power in a seemingly human shell – and yet did not seem to know how to access her own nature.

That fact actually confused him – had she never been trained at all? Were the people in her homeland such fools as to leave someone so dangerously powerful untrained and untutored, able only to access her true power when her emotions became involved? It went without saying that Inuyasha was just as much a fool as those of her homeland apparently were; having had such a powerful female literally dropped into his lap, he not only ignored her much of the time in favor of the undead miko, who was merely siphoning the power she was using from Kagome, but also refused to allow her any time to be trained!

And then he had the nerve to compare her to the false miko? The only thing that bitch had on Kagome was training, she certainly didn't have more power. She had none of her own, in fact – every bit of what she used was taken from the portion of Kagome's soul she had stolen. That thought sent an actual shiver down his spine – if the girl's soul contained so much power that even a small part of it was able to allow a person as much strength as Kikyou was able to call from it, how much more powerful her soul in its entirety had to be! And since he, Sesshoumaru, craved power in everything, it was then truly no surprise that he had been instantly attracted to her – whether she looked human or not.

Looks were quite frequently deceiving, after all.

This would all be so much easier if Kagome had fallen into his hands, first, rather than the whelp's. Then he wouldn't be constantly rushing off to save her from yet another one of Inuyasha's screw-ups – and wouldn't be forced to _help_ his father's bastard on top of it.

_Chichi-ue... _his brow furrowed as his father once more crept into his thoughts. Not that he was ever far from them, thanks to the legacy he'd left his heir – the Western Lands, a half-breed stain on the family, bad memories, and little else. _Tenseiga... not a sword that is truly useful for one such as I... and so I was left to commission the forging of a sword of my own from a lesser swordsmith. Toukijin has strength, yes... but it is merely an oni's fang. How much more I could have done with the fang of a daiyoukai of my father's strength._

He growled, his eyes flashing crimson, before he closed himself off from those useless thoughts ruthlessly. Remembering his father and his father's faithlessness to him, his heir and only legitimate son, only brought about frustrated anger – anger that had no place to go and so was just as useless as thoughts of his sire were.

Forcibly turning his attention to the problem at hand Sesshoumaru scented the air again, searching for the stench of the neko youkai or Kagome's divine scent of pure power. Her scent was like the clear, high smell of the aftermath of a lightening strike, laden with nature's own furious strength, and was something he, Sesshoumaru would never, ever forget. He would remember her scent a thousand years from now even if he hadn't seen or scented her in just that long, and no matter how many other scents overlay it, he would still know it the moment the merest hint of it hit his sensitive nose.

It was no different in this moment, the stench of the panthers almost made bearable by her scent. And then his nose wrinkled and he snarled, his eyes reddening – because he could also scent someone else following their backtrail – the ookami. The mangy wolf was as oblivious as Inuyasha, seemingly not noticing his betrothal scent mark on the girl anymore than the foolish hanyou had. Either that, or both were most excellent at ignoring what they didn't want to pay attention to.

But with Inuyasha, at least, he knew that wasn't the case – if the boy_ had _noticed that scent mark, he would have paid every attention - and gone off the deep end. And that hadn't happened... yet. Of course, he had been awfully busy lately trying to strengthen Tessaiga. _Hmph – as if it is Tessaiga that needs to be strengthened, _he sniffed disdainfully. _Trying to take the easy way out. Fool. For if one strengthens ones sword too much without also strengthening oneself, as well, then the sword will become stronger than its wielder leaving it unable to be wielded. Just like before, when he could barely lift it, and I was left to defend the wretched whelp and his other companions. Not that I did it for his sake... _

It infuriated him, the fact that two such weaklings as Inuyasha and the ookami had the _audacity_ to covet that which only _he_ was powerful enough to have. Inuyasha, trying to scrabble out of the dirt that all humans spent their life in, and the ookami – one so weak he had to depend on shards of that jewel for any sort of strength, and even then was still too weak to defeat Kagura, a false youkai formed from an even falser hanyou! That either of them thought they had the right to even sniff her _scent_ was enough to redden his eyes, and as he flew through the air following that same scent he cracked his knuckles, a green glow gathering around his claws as the need to gut the hanyou and the filthy ookami and leave them splayed open in warning to any that thought to take what he, Sesshoumaru, claimed, surged through him.

His eyes searched the ground far below as he flew, the gathering darkness not hindering him at all as he took note of the fortress at the head of the good-sized town the trail was leading him straight to. He dropped out of the sky to land gently on his feet as he studied it with all his senses. _So... the mutt has already arrived, has he? And the fool ookami, as well. I'm surprised either of those weak bakayarou have managed to make it this far._

_So be it. We will see what we will see, then, Inuyasha, won't we? _

Taking to the air again even as Jaken finally woke up and stuck his head out of mokomoko's fur, Sesshoumaru flew over most of the empty town, not bothering with what his senses were telling him was nothing more than a trap. Suddenly, however, he could hear the half-breed's furious yelling and smell a most foul odor – and an even fouler one... Karan.

Landing lightly in front of a small section of houses that lay directly in his path, he drew Toukijin and simply blew them and Karan's foul-smelling black smoke out of his way, stunning those in the small square that had apparently been surrounded and fighting for their lives. _Weakness, _he snarled inwardly before looking up at the panther-wench standing atop the roof of one of the houses.

"What are you doing, Karan?" he asked coldly as he walked through the billowing smoke of his blast to stand before them in all his pristine glory. He almost sneered at seeing Inuyasha there – it angered him suddenly even more that he would dare to think he could come here and be a part of this battle with the panthers. After all, since he had lost his heart to that puerile mortal miko and then been pinned, he'd left it to _him_ to deal with the filthy neko the last time they'd decided to try to take the West and he'd sent them running then by himself – he could do it this time, too, as well as rescue Kagome, all perfectly well without Inuyasha's help. Remembered anger surged through him with his memories of that time and his temper came close to exploding. "I am the one you have business with," he told her icily, not wishing to even acknowledge the half-breed at all.

"So the big brother appears," Karan smirked scornfully. "Nothing could be better than both of you. Oi, sons of the Inu no Taisho, we'll be waiting at the castle for you!" With that she turned and leapt away with the rest of the neko, disappearing towards the fortress at the head of the town like the coward she was, to Sesshoumaru's distaste.

"Oi, Sesshoumaru, why the hell are you here?" Inuyasha challenged arrogantly, still holding Tessaiga at the ready – as if he could threaten his older sibling – Tessaiga or not.

"That is my question to you," he said, his face and voice blank – though his eyes gave him away. He was raging inside. "Get out of here, Inuyasha."

"W-what?" Inuyasha stuttered, surprised at his brother's sharp tone – what was with him?

"I will not have you getting involved in this war!" Sesshoumaru snapped, his temper heating even further at the wretched whelp's clueless interference and his seeming inability to protect anything but his own hide.

"Oi, I don't need your permission, Sesshoumaru! Kagome's been kidnapped by those cats!" Inuyasha snarled back, uninterested in the signs of his brother's deteriorating hold on his temper and not realizing that most of that temper was due to the very fact that those cats had taken Kagome – and that he had not managed to stop them.

"Fool!" he growled, drawing his arm back and letting out a blast of energy from Toukijin, watching stonily as his unruly sibling was thrown back into one of the houses and halfway through it. He had to clench his jaw to keep from saying anything else to the boy. He did not want to hand him any power of him, and allowing the brat to shake his control of his temper was doing just that.

"W-why you..!" Inuyasha struggled to right himself under his brother's deadly glare. "What do you think you're doing?!" he yelled as Sesshoumaru turned to walk away.

Sesshoumaru snapped his head around just enough to glare at his brother out of red-hazed golden eyes, the snarl curling his lip barely held back from being a full-blown sound of rage. "Silence, Inuyasha!"

"Why you-" he started again, only to be cut off.

"Just remember this," Sesshoumaru said coldly, turning his head away, "You lost your heart to a mortal and ended up under a seal. You have no right to be part of this battle now." He paused, tilting his head just enough to turn a deadly eye on him once more. "For _any_ reason."

Inuyasha knew immediately what he was saying and his eyes narrowed as his own temper heated in reaction. But his brother simply walked away, stepping right on top of Jaken, who had skittered forward to follow his master, trying to get him to accept help from the hanyou, weaker or not.

_As if I have a need for that hanyou, _he sneered inwardly as he headed for where he could scent Touran's cold scent coming from. _I will destroy this den of filthy neko and keep them from harming Kagome myself. _

He walked into another open square, his ears being assaulted by obnoxious meowing sounds, and stared icily at his nemesis. Touran had her usual haughty smirk on her face as she spotted him, and he narrowed his eyes slightly at her.

"You beckoned me, and you won't let me see your so-called 'Master'?" he asked mockingly, knowing his tone would annoy the panther female whether she showed it or not.

"Well, we're just not ready for that part yet," she responded, still smirking, though he could see a spark of anger in her eyes. "So, will my company do?" she asked archly, her aura beginning to swirl with her ice-based power.

Before he could reply, Jaken once more interfered, attempting to use the staff to burn Touran for her disrespect of his Lord. Sesshoumaru did not intervene until the last moment as shards of ice headed for his little servant, and then in one elegant move he unsheathed Toukijin and destroyed the panther female's ice shards with no effort at all.

"You sure have a dangerous weapon there," she laughed, forming an odd two-ended staff with sharpened ends from her own icy nature and leaping towards him.

He countered her easily, bringing Toukijin up to catch her attack on its blade as she attempted to overpower him. It was a laughable effort – she was no match for his power in any way and he almost felt insulted that she seemed to think that she was. After all, he was _dai_youkai, and she was... merely a youkai.

"Brings back memories of when we last fought, doesn't it?" she asked, trying to appear unmoved at the effort it was taking her to hold her place against him. "It ended up in a draw then. But not this time."

"A draw, you say?" Sesshoumaru asked, his eyes flashing dangerously in the light of their weapon's differing powers snapping and sparking like lightening around them. "You just retreated, your losses too heavy to continue the battle."

"So many of your men also died," she countered, an edge now in her voice that told him he was getting to her just as he'd known he would.

"There is no need for this one to have an army around him to defeat you, Touran; those losses were their own, since they came to fight you on behalf of Chichi-ue, not this Sesshoumaru," he rebutted coldly.

Tired of holding off a creature that was barely holding on against his one arm with both of hers, Sesshoumaru flung her away from him without bothering to answer her, a scintillating blast of power from Toukijin tossing her across the square. She managed at the last minute to evade the worst of it.

"Last time I wasn't that determined," she tossed out angrily as she floated back to the ground, the natural grace of the youkai allowing her to do it softly. "This time we have *oyakata-sama."

A chorus of meows erupted behind him and he spun even more gracefully than Touran was capable of and unleashed a wave of power at them with scarce-hidden irritation. _She insults this one with such a pathetic ploy to attack from behind. Just like a cat, to attempt to sneak. _When the blast faded, the square was almost totally destroyed and the felines that had thought to attack him were gone.

"It's different now," came Touran's voice through the dust cloud as she used it to effect a temporary escape.

_Back then... _he let himself remember what she was speaking of, his father's allies coming to swear to assist him and failing as she and her felines made war on his lands. But the one being he had expected to stand with him, regardless of his tainted blood, was Inuyasha as a son of their father. Instead... Inuyasha had been sealed – because he was a fool.

"Jaken," he turned to look for his retainer, only to find him missing. Without further ado, he continued on in his search for Touran – and Kagome.

~oOo~

Kagome knelt at the side of Sango and Miroku and checked them once more, hoping that they would awaken soon. She'd never been so glad to see anyone before in her life, even if they were unconscious, because it meant Inuyasha wasn't far behind.

When she'd been taken by those panthers and then found herself tossed inside a prison cell with a bunch of the dispossessed townspeople, she'd felt a great deal of apprehension. It was a right terrible coil she'd found herself in this time and she'd been unable to even do anything to help herself, being taken by surprise from behind by a sleeping spell.

But when she'd seen Sango and Miroku being dragged in unconscious, after dealing with the fear that they were truly harmed and finding that they weren't, she'd breathed easier, and continued to try to calm the frightened people sharing her cell. It wasn't working too well, but...

Once her friends finally woke up, she explained their predicament to them and just what the panthers were after, and introduced them to the people in their cell with them.

"They are from the town, then," Miroku said, nodding when Kagome explained their past to he and Sango.

"It was a good place to escape the wars," Sango agreed when told of their reasons for living in a hidden town.

"Yeah, until the panther demons found it and made it their headquarters," Kagome sighed, turning around again when the townspeople began murmuring of their fear once more and praying to Amida. "Don't be afraid," she encouraged yet again.

"The panthers are so strong," an older man cried, disheartened despite her encouragement as were the other people there, clutching to each other and their children.

"But someone stronger is coming to rescue us," Kagome replied soothingly, smiling at the terrified people. Her caring nature was coming to the fore as she attempted to keep them all from losing their hearts to their fears.

"Who?" one man asked, standing up and meeting her gaze head on. He was the only one who had.

"Inuyasha and Kouga," she answered. "They are coming, and then we will be freed. Don't lose hope!"

"I don't know about Sesshoumaru-sama, though," Miroku said then, remembering the inuyoukai's angry outburst at his brother.

Kagome froze and almost stopped breathing for a moment. Forcing herself to speak after a few seconds, she looked at the monk with a weak smile. "S-Sesshoumaru?" she asked, wishing that she could ignore that name every time it was mentioned.

"He's battling the panther youkai tribe," Sango answered, looking with knowing eyes at her friend.

Surprised, she frowned, confused. "Why?"

An uneasy silence fell then, since no one knew what his entire reason was, though both Sango and Miroku were entirely certain that Kagome was a good part of it.

But they couldn't tell her that... because she still didn't know about his mark on her.

~oOo~

"Karan."

"Come, fight me, Sesshoumaru!" the cat taunted, throwing several fireballs at him and then running, trying to lead his attention from the castle itself. It was apparent that they were trying to delay him. "Take my fire!"

He was not impressed.

He blocked Karan's fireballs with Toukijin disinterestedly, watching with a bored expression as she ran, tossing more fireballs his way.

Definitely not inclined to stand around and play with a neko that was not anywhere near him in strength, Sesshoumaru simply pointed his sword at her and blew not only her fireball away, but her, as well, knocking her into the stone retaining wall of the hei. She fell forward into the moat, her fire doused, and he walked forward slowly to look down at the wet and definitely irritated cat, coldly amused at the look on her face.

A whistling sound alerted him to Touran's ice spear being hurled in his direction and he leapt lightly backwards, landing outside the spear's reach as it hit the ground and turned it to ice for several feet around its impact point.

"I'm impressed," she said with that same smirk she always seemed to have as she came to the aid of her sister. "I thought you'd be weaker than before."

"What do you mean?" Sesshoumaru asked, his eyes narrowing. If there was one thing he wasn't, it was weak. That was a word he hated more than he hated anything else. The cat was asking to die with that insult.

"That arm," she replied. "After all, who was it that cut it off?" she asked mockingly, chuckling at her pointed reference to Inuyasha.

Eyes narrowing dangerously, Sesshoumaru attacked immediately, leaping lightly into the air and flinging an energy assault at her from his swordpoint, which she blocked – barely. The backlash exploded and Sesshoumaru landed in a crouch, then looked up to see his nemesis standing atop the gate in the hei.

"The party will start very soon, now," she grinned, her fangs flashing in the cold light of the moon. "Come at your leisure," she laughed and then disappeared into her ice cloud.

Sesshoumaru was getting quite angry at her insults and constant refusal to actually stay and fight. But it told him what they were really doing... _Delaying tactics – all of this has merely been to keep me from getting into the honmaru. She has that fool's remains settled there, waiting for whatever finish she has planned. As if I will allow her to taunt me and get away with it – or to resurrect an enemy that Chichie-ue defeated in honest combat and destroyed._

_And then there is another matter... their capturing of Kagome. I know Touran scented my mark on her and knows who she has stolen from. For that insult as well she will pay._

The worst insult of all, however, was their belief that he would ever allow a filthy neko to take over his lands and rule them.

It would never happen.

"I will fight you, and I will fight your 'master', Touran. And when I am through, you will never again attempt to take what is mine from me."

His voice rumbled through the air like the after-echo of thunder before fading to silence as he entered the first and outermost bailey and disappeared from sight.

~oOo~

A/N: If the dialogue in this chapter seems a little stiff and abrupt, that's because it is. Most of it is taken directly from the manga and there isn't much of a smooth flow to it, since it is manga instead of a novel and there is just a big difference between the two. I did add a bit to it in an attempt to smooth it out some, but I don't want to change too much of the scenes that I am taking directly from canon.

I also apologize for not responding to all my reviews – I've just had too many and I haven't had a lot of time for writing anything lately, let alone answering reviews. But I have read them all and enjoyed them!

Amber


	6. A Tacit Admission

**Chapter 6: A Tacit Admission**

Kagome watched Sesshoumaru walk away from the castle, so shocked by his actions that she didn't even pay any attention to Inuyasha finishing off the panther's erstwhile and traitorous master.

_He... he saved them! He brought them back after their own master murdered them. But... why? I thought... aren't they enemies? _She shook her head in confusion, still staring blankly at the place he'd disappeared, his tall, elegant form burned into the backs of her eyes.

_Every time I see him I see something different, _she thought, her will weakening just that much more. For how could she resist someone who'd shown such mercy to an enemy? Oh, she knew he would never admit such a thing aloud, just as he would never admit to taking care of little Rin.

Just a little bit more of her heart and soul disappeared into the distance as he did, held in his hand because of that very fact. Before long he would hold all of her in that wickedly clawed appendage and just like she'd known, she wouldn't even be unhappy with her fate once it caught her, because she wanted him more every time she saw him – especially when he proved that there was so much more to him than there had seemed to be the first time she'd seen him.

With a weary and heartsick sigh she walked over to join Inuyasha as he strode jauntily through the castle gates, a cocky grin on his face. When she reached his side, he handed her the shards of the jewel he'd taken from the panther-youkai.

"Keh – don't lose 'em again, wench," he warned semi-jokingly. "We can't be runnin' around always tryin' to get 'em back 'cause you keep losin' 'em."

Kagome blinked, the haze in her mind labeled 'Sesshoumaru' giving way to the burning rage labeled 'pissed at Inuyasha' in a heartbeat at his words. "_What?!_" she shouted. "I didn't lose them the last time, you jerk, your dead girlfriend stole them from me! Don't you dare blame me for her backstabbing!" she finished before storming off, leaving a shocked hanyou staring at her back with confusion.

He was just about to stomp after her and snarl back when he caught that same disturbingly strange scent emanating from her... he growled with frustration as he narrowed his eyes in concentration, determined to figure out what it was.

But once again he had no luck – it was like every time he managed to get just a tiny whiff and then it would disappear. He scowled... _It has to be something from that bastard Sesshoumaru – _a sub-sonic growl rumbled through his chest – _but what? And why is he __so__ determined to get his hands on her? She's just another human – a miko, Kikyou's reincarnation, and he hates humans... he only looks contemptuously on Kikyou, so what's so different about Kagome?_

Eyes thin slits of hatred, Inuyasha slid his sword through his sash and followed after the slender girl determinedly.

_I'm gonna find out what's goin' on sooner or later, you overbred bastard... but in the end it doesn't even matter why you want her..._

_You can't have her._

_I'll see you rotting in hell first._

~oOo~

Kagome drew her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, huddling small and forlorn under the night skies of Japan's Feudal Era. A small breeze blew past, gently mingling in the midnight strands of satin that was her hair and rifling her bangs with tender fingers.

A bitter turn to her lips and shadowed eyes gave the lie to the seeming tranquility of the moment as she got lost in her unhappy thoughts, able to allow her mind to wander now that she was relatively alone, the others all asleep – and Inuyasha kami only knew where.

He'd been acting strangely lately – ever since that fight with the panther youkai. _Not that he's not always temperamental and strange, _she rolled her eyes, _but it's worse lately. He watches me constantly, as though he suspects me of... something. But what? It's not like I'm the one that should be watched – Kikyou's the one that enabled Naraku to get stronger. _

A flat, dead laugh forced itself past her lips. "Not that he'll ever admit such a thing – that's why I didn't even bother telling him about her trying to kill me. There wouldn't have been any point."

The breeze abruptly died, and she froze when the male that was haunting her every thought and all her dreams spoke up from behind her.

"Inuyasha is a fool. He fell to his weakness to that mortal priestess and was sealed for his stupidity. You may have revived him, but he has obviously learned nothing from the past."

Oddly numb, Kagome thought about what Sesshoumaru had said. She couldn't deny that he was right about Inuyasha having learned nothing from the past. And yet...

"You call him a fool for desiring a mortal priestess, Sesshoumaru... and yet, here you are. Aren't I a mortal priestess? It seems to me that your words are worth less than the effort it took to say them." She paused, then finished slowly, "A mirror image of Kikyou is all I am. So you should leave before you're contaminated by my disgusting humanity."

The last breath of sound hadn't even faded before Sesshoumaru was on her. "The last thing you are is a mortal priestess, Ka-go-me," he whispered silkily into her ear, smiling darkly to himself as she reacted to his touch immediately with a full-body shiver. "As for that abomination that Inuyasha chases... there is nothing about you that is a mirror of her. She could only be rightly called a faded, tattered reflection of _you _if she could be called anything."

He gathered her hair into his hand and brushed it aside, and Kagome couldn't stop the moan that came from her as he drew his nose up the ridge of her throat, scenting her. His voice dropped into a deeper register as he nipped her flesh with tender fangs. "No... you are nothing like that wench. And no matter how you fight me, no matter where you run to, you will not escape me."

Blood racing beneath suddenly hyper-sensitive flesh, Kagome's breath hitched and then picked up as well as a wickedly strong hand ran up her arm, a shock like lightening coming from the contact, stunning her. She clenched her eyes shut. "Words... your words are dust in the wind, Sesshoumaru. You'd better leave before Inuyasha comes back from wherever he wandered off to, or he'll really lose it. I don't feel like having him trying to kill me for 'fraternizing with the enemy'."

A jagged, dangerous growl vibrated the air around them as his hand tightened on her arm. "If Inuyasha touches you, I _will_ kill him. You are mine. Even he isn't such a fool as to not know what the consequences would be for harming you in any way."

Kagome shot to her feet, her emotions in a whirl and her heart aching – aching just like her body with unresolved desire and her trapped and twisted emotions. Spinning around, she met his gaze, not surprised to find that he was also standing just that quickly. "I don't believe you, Sesshoumaru. I think this whole thing is a game to you – you want to take something that you see as Inuyasha's away from him – just like the Tessaiga. This isn't about me at all! Well, you can just go away again and think of something else, because I don't belong to Inuyasha... and I don't belong to _you_." Her voice was ragged as she finished her statement, her eyes swimming with tears and frustration and even the very beginnings of heartache, and had she but known it, it tugged at a heart that had long since grown cold and hard within the daiyoukai.

Reacting instantly and without thought, Sesshoumaru reached out and grasped her arm, pulling her into him forcefully. A rumble of fierce need vibrated through both their bodies as Sesshoumaru gave into the demands of his youkai blood and slammed his mouth down on hers, parting her lips and taking her like the conqueror he truly was under his deceptively beautiful exterior.

Stiffening in shock, Kagome's own eyes widened at the look in his reddening ones; briefly, she struggled, but then with a groan of surrender her eyes fell closed and she pressed closer to him, tears streaking her cheeks as her tormented heart and soul gave in to what he was demanding of her. Her arms wound themselves around his neck, not even noticing the pain of his armor spikes bruising her fair flesh as her need overwhelmed her mind's denials, its refusal to submit to the desire that raged through their bodies like a force of nature weakening with every second he held her to him.

Sesshoumaru was drowning, everything that he was being subsumed by the touch of this one girl – and he couldn't even care. He bristled with a fierce, unbridled sense of joy as she returned his caress, her untutored but desperate response spinning fire through his bloodstream and glorious need through his body. Her tiny whimpers only egged him on, nothing gentle or sweet about this clash – it was primal, raw, and earthy and more beautiful than anything either had ever experienced before.

He ripped his mouth from hers so she could breathe, hot, open-mouthed kisses and fangy nips leaving a trail of scorching sensation down her throat, his caresses forcing her head to fall back and a long, low moan from deep within her chest. His hand was not idle, either, moving from her arm to sweep down her back and press her as close as possible through his damnable armor, pinning her hips to his and forcing her to feel his completely male response to her proximity even through his armor plating.

As her core nestled closer to him he groaned again, in just as much pain as she was with unfulfilled desire, and he forced one muscled thigh between hers, bringing her woman's heat into contact with his flesh, the only thing separating them at that point being two relatively thin pieces of silk. He hissed, then, nicking her collarbone with a deadly fang, and his eyes flashed crimson, red light glowing through the night and illuminating the ground around them as her blood, sweet, powerful, and addicting hit his tongue.

Kagome was in no better shape. For the first time since this had all started, her mind knew herself as a _female_, her body beckoning to the daiyoukai holding her with all the raw sexuality of a siren just as she had been forced to see Sesshoumaru not as just a youkai, but an intensely sexual _male_. Ready or not, the inner wanton had been woken and her fingers tangled in the iridescent silk of his hair, pulling him closer to her as he took in and tasted her blood.

Rather than being repulsed by this erotic, almost animalistic, raw passion, she could only crave more of the delicious contact, tilting her head back further and offering him even more of her blood – as much as he wanted to take. She knew that this was a craving, a tasting, and that he would not harm her or drain her of her life's force even as her tongue suddenly burned with the need to taste his skin, to run it along his flesh until his flavor was burned into her mind for all time.

Sesshoumaru was dangerously close to taking her right where they stood, regardless of where they were or heedless of who was nearby, nothing in his entire life having ever prepared him for the wildness that she called from within him. Nothing had ever tested his control of himself as she was doing, not even his great rage towards his father nor jealousy of his half-brother. And he knew in that instant that he could take her then, he could bind them irreversibly right that moment and she would not fight him.

Oh, he knew that she was still not ready to surrender. If he did take her now, as soon as thought had returned to her and she woke from the torrent of passion they were both drowning in she would be horrified and immediately try to fight him again, she would refuse to stay by his side and he would have to force her – which even more now, he did not want to do.

No... he would only take that route if in the end he could not sway her in any other way.

But there was still time – most of the jewel was with Naraku or scattered still over the lands and they had yet to manage to truly catch the spider's scent, let alone destroy him. Until such time as those tasks were completed he knew that she would not be permanently returning to her world.

And if in the end it was finished and she was still fighting him, he would destroy the rift in time and force her to stay in this era with him, for he was not willing to wait five hundred years until her era to taste her, to feel her again.

Desperately grasping for every shred of control that he could, Sesshoumaru began to soften the raging passion between them, gentling her and his own body with soft touches and calming rumbles from his chest. She tried to press back into him as he did, a soft, thin, desperate, "No," almost causing him to pull her close again, but he held on and once more took her lips, this time a sensual but quick kiss that left her taste and scent embedded into his tongue and memories for all time.

It was apparent as he pulled back reluctantly exactly when her mind awoke from its haze, because she stiffened and paled, her eyes filling with tears once more as she pulled away, stumbling backwards to stare at him with misery tainting her scent.

A soft, choking sound of intense grief came from her throat as she looked at him, her blue eyes glowing in the moonlight, had she but known it, and trapping the male standing before her more thoroughly than she would ever have believed even had she known. His hand came out as though to touch her once again, an involuntary movement; he clenched it tightly and let it fall, not even feeling it as his claws pierced his own flesh when she flinched away from him in response.

"This can't happen, Sesshoumaru," she said softly out of a throat tight with pain and confusion. "I'm... I'm not part of your world. There's too much standing between you and I, not the least of which is your brother and my loyalty to him and my quest." She looked away, catching her swollen lip between her teeth for a moment, then shook her head dejectedly. "Please... if you have any mercy for me then go and don't look back, don't come back only to taunt me with what can never be. _Please_," she whispered intensely, for the first time tacitly acknowledging her desire for him without saying it in so many words.

His eyes hardened and he straightened. "_Never,_" he bit out fiercely. "I will never let you go. The world you came from makes no difference to me, Kagome – the moment you stepped into my world and crossed my path your link to your own was sundered forever. From now until this realm fades into the ether you are mine. _Mine." _His eyes flashed dangerously for a moment, and then he turned and walked away without another word. Kagome let out a choked sob and fell to her knees, burying her face in her hands, blinded by the storm of tears and the provocation of his words.

_Damn you, Sesshoumaru!_

~oOo~

Sango glanced ahead to where their illustrious 'leader' stalked gracefully along, then her gaze flicked over her shoulder for a quick moment to where Kagome was walking, lost in dark thoughts with Shippo curled up in her arms. She sighed, worried, and nodded a little when Miroku, who was walking next to her, met her gaze with a concerned one of his own.

The air in the group had been strained for days now and was getting worse – because, while it didn't appear that Inuyasha had realized that his brother had marked Kagome, he seemed to know that something was going on and it was clear that even though he was not speaking to her or even seemingly paying attention to her, he was actually watching her fairly closely.

Even Jaken's laughable little attempt to steal Tessaiga for his Lord hadn't broken the ice between Kagome and Inuyasha, and the strained silences were getting on her nerves.

The odd thing was that Kagome didn't even seem to be really aware of Inuyasha on a more than casual basis. She was morose and moody, and that wasn't normally like her. Something had happened, but she had no idea what it was, only that it had to do with Sesshoumaru. Lately, anything with her young friend did... perhaps Kagome had another run-in with the daiyoukai that none of them knew about?

She sighed again. _Probably. He's almost always near enough for his aura to be felt. And I know Kagome can feel him – as can Inuyasha. He can catch his scent, too... I've noticed him sniffing into the wind and scowling. _But the strange thing to her was that Inuyasha still hadn't realized that his brother had marked Kagome. He should have been able to scent it clearly immediately.

Something else occurred to Sango, then. Kouga also didn't seem to have noticed the mark on Kagome. And even if you attributed Inuyasha's having missed the mark due to his human blood, Kouga was a full blooded ookami youkai, another breed of canine that had remarkable scenting abilities. And Inuyasha's nose had always worked very well before... so had Sesshoumaru done something to hide the scent of his mark?

She shook her head, frustrated that she couldn't seem to figure this puzzle out. No... there would have been no reason for him to bother marking her if all he was going to do was turn around and hide it. That was the whole reason that canine-based youkai even bothered marking in the first place – to warn other youkai away from what they claimed.

Sesshoumaru's instincts simply wouldn't have allowed him to hide the scent mark he'd placed on the female he'd chosen as his – it would have defeated the purpose of doing so.

Perhaps the truth of the matter was that Kagome was somehow purifying the scent of the mark? No... because Sango was pretty sure she didn't even realize that she had been marked in the first place. _I wonder if Shippo can tell me, _she thought then, making up her mind to get the little kit alone later that evening and ask.

Mind made up, she held her peace for the rest of the afternoon, following along quietly as they continued to travel, though she sighed with relief when Inuyasha finally turned off the path and led them back into the trees to find a place to camp for the night without a word being spoken.

By this time the group had been together long enough to have their parts in the necessary functions of living already habit; their night's camp was set up within twenty minutes or so, with a fire beginning to crackle pleasantly in the cool evening air.

"Kagome," Sango murmured, "if you give me your pot and water containers, I'll take Shippo to the stream and gather water for the evening meal."

The miko nodded absently as Shippo helped Sango out by taking the pot for the water and two of Kagome's 'bottles' from her so that the taijiya would only need to carry the other four. Within moments, she and Shippo disappeared back under the trees, a kitten-sized Kirara trotting after them with a sassy little twitch of her tails. She had something she wanted to pass on to Sango, and Shippo was her translator.

She was full youkai, a neko mononoke. But just because she only had the one form that she could change in a limited manner by size didn't mean she wasn't powerful or intelligent as any other youkai. She was just unable to speak in the human tongue at this time – although that would one day change when she had aged and grown in her strength enough to finally achieve a human form. However, that would not happen for some time yet, and so she would simply have to pass on what her nose and instincts and other senses were telling her to Sango via Shippo.

Sesshoumaru was deadly serious about marking Kagome as his mate. He had come to her again a few nights ago and had strengthened his mark on her. If it hadn't been for Shippo and she muddling the scents, Inuyasha would have figured out by now what the scent was that seemed to hover so tantalizingly lightly over the miko – and promptly lost his mind.

He had begun scenting her as a potential mate, himself in the last days... it was just that as a hanyou it took his scent mark longer to stick, and he would have to continue to scent her for a longer time than his brother did to make the scent noticeable. Even worse, the next time Sesshoumaru came within a few miles of Kagome he would know exactly what his brother was doing, and she had no doubt that he would immediately attack their leader.

A disaster was looming on the horizon, and they needed to figure out what to do before that disaster struck and left their group in shambles.

What frustrated Kirara was that Inuyasha wasn't marking Kagome with full intent... he was doing it simply because he felt threatened by his brother's interest in her – not to mention Kouga's. At this point, Inuyasha's scent gave away the conflicted nature of his feelings for Kagome and the shade of who she used to be. So... he was determined to keep Kagome from finding any potential happiness with anyone else unless he decided in the end that he did not want her.

That was not how choosing and marking a mate should go.

It didn't take long once the three companions reached the stream for the neko to pass on her messages to Sango, and now gravely concerned, the taijiya decided that she needed to get Miroku aside and warn him so that he could intervene if necessary. If Inuyasha finally caught on to what was going on, he might very well have to be immobilized and restrained with ofuda to keep him from doing something foolish.

"Sango?" Shippo said, breaking into her worried thoughts. "Kirara says you should tell Kagome what's going on. She needs to know."

At that, the taijiya scowled as she gathered the filled bottles and let Shippo take the pot. "I shouldn't have to! Sesshoumaru shouldn't have marked her if he wasn't going to tell her what he'd done. *Nante zuuzuushii yatsu da!"

"Mew!" Kirara glared up at her sometimes stubborn and hot-headed Sango, and Shippo chuckled a little at the fierce look from such a cute, tiny looking kitten.

He shook his head as he met Sango's surprised gaze. "She says that while he may not have told Kagome in so many words 'I have scent-marked you', she is already well aware that he sees her as his – he has told her so repeatedly."

"Still," Sango muttered darkly, "he should have been straightforward with her – it's not like Kagome is from here and understands youkai ways. It's underhanded, is what it is." She sighed after a moment as the light of the fire beckoned through the trees and they neared a still-silent camp, "I'll try to get her alone as soon as I can and fill her in on what's going on."

"Tonight, Sango," Shippo finished softly just before they stepped into the camp. "We're all following Naraku's scent and you know when we find him we'll find Sesshoumaru trying to kill him. She needs to know."

Sango just nodded, a very worried glint in her eyes as she handed out the refilled water bottles and Kagome set the pot of water Shippo had handed her on a rock at the edge of the fire to heat.

Once again, a foreboding silence fell in the little clearing as the group sat around the fire and waited for their supper to be ready.

~oOo~

*Nante zuuzuushii yatsu da!-What nerve he's got!

A/N: I've been pretty busy, so I haven't had a chance to post on this story even though I have through chapter ten already written. But I also haven't had the time to answer reviews - I've been slowly working on an original full length story, kinda getting down some of the pivotal scenes so I don't forget any of it. I'm probably going to be more incognito with keeping up with my Inuyasha fanfics, and working on my own story, so I most likely won't be answering general reviews, just questions. But as always, I read every one and they really are fuel, they kinda keep me wanting to write and keep everyone happy.

At any rate, I hope everyone enjoys the chapter and has a good night!

Amber


	7. Marked

**Chapter 7 Marked**

Dinner was as silent as the day had been, no one wanting to break the silence open and invite the disaster that was looming in to wreak havoc within their group. Inuyasha simply ate his food and then leapt back into his tree to ostensibly keep watch – though he was 'watching' Kagome more than he was anything else.

Miroku, on the other hand, was watching him, and Sango was trying to decide how she was going to go about informing her friend of the fact that she was marked as Sesshoumaru's mate-to-be without setting her off into hysterics. Kagome was lost in her own world just as she had been for most of the last days, and Kirara simply watched the group with wise, though worried, eyes. Shippo was the only one that didn't seem to be too worried, and that was because he was still young enough that he expected the adults to have all the answers they needed to take care of whatever was wrong without him_ having_ to worry about it.

That innocence wouldn't last long.

Once dinner was finished and Kagome stirred herself to wash up her pot and their utensils, Sango quietly stood up to follow her, grabbing the pot that had held their water to rinse it clean from the fire marks before Kagome could insist that she could handle the small amount of dishes alone.

Her determined manner caught Kagome's attention; with a curious frown she followed Sango's form through the fitful moonlight that flickered down through the trees and wondered what was on her friend's mind to have that look on her face. She looked like she was about to tend to a very unpleasant duty, and goosebumps stirred on her arms at the mere thought of just what could have the slayer so determined to speak to her – and while alone.

_If she so much as mentions Sesshoumaru's name I'm going to go into hysterics._

The flashing of fitful light from just ahead showed her that they had arrived at the river, and going to the sandy little bank, she knelt down to begin rinsing their dinnerware. After a moment, when Sango had also done the same, Kagome asked, "What's on your mind, Sango?" quietly.

It was silent for some few seconds, and then a sigh issued from the taijiya and her shoulders slumped a little. Kagome's brows shot into her bangs and her heart sank into her stomach – for Sango to be acting like that, she must _really_ not want to tell her whatever it was she was about to say.

Finally, her voice was heard above the sound of the rushing water. "Kagome," she hesitated, then blurted, "when was the last time you saw Sesshoumaru?"

Beginning to feel like she was about to hyperventilate at any moment, _I knew I was going to get hysterical if I heard his name, _Kagome put her hands to her temples and rubbed, her eyes falling closed at the heightening of the tension she'd been in for so many weeks now. Ever since the day she'd met him, if the truth were to be told. She idly wondered how much longer she'd be able to stand the stress before she finally just lost it.

Breathing in deeply to try to calm herself, she said, "A few nights ago. Why do you ask?"

Turning to look at her, Sango asked, "He's gotten physical with you, hasn't he?"

Blinking in surprise, Kagome shook her head, not having expected that question. "Physical?" she murmured, confused. "No... Sesshoumaru has never hit me, Sango. Why would you think that he had?"

An impatient sound came from the slayer and it was her turn to shake her head. "No! That's not what I meant, Kagome. I meant... he's... he's _touched_ you. Maybe," she whispered, "even _kissed_ you."

Taken aback for a moment, it didn't take long for the younger woman to blush before turning her hot face to the ground. "How did you know?" she asked faintly, almost positive she didn't really want to know the answer to that question, but nonetheless almost morbidly curious.

Ignoring the faint splash of water just downstream as a fish leapt after its dinner, Sango paused, then reluctantly said, "Because... he's marked you, Kagome."

Staring at her friend in surprise and confusion, Kagome tried to work out what Sango had just said, but it made no sense to her. "M-marked?" she stuttered, not sure how she was even making her mouth function right at the moment. "What's that mean?"

"Kagome," she said earnestly, turning her head to once again pin her friend's gaze with her own fierce one, "Sesshoumaru is serious about taking you as his. He's marked you as his intended – and it's not just a game to him. He's not after you to piss Inuyasha off or anything else – he wants you, and he won't let anything get in his way when it comes to taking you – but also protecting you," she continued telling her stunned young friend. "That's why he's been watching over all of us – not for our sakes, but for yours. And that's a big part of why he went after those panther youkai – because they took you and touched you in a threatening manner. He _will_ kill anything or anyone that threatens you – or attempts to take you away from him."

So shocked she was literally speechless for several long moments as she took in what her friend was saying, Kagome could do little more than stare at her, not even knowing where to start. But after several seconds of that ringing silence, she blurted the first word to form in her stunned mind.

"Serious?"

Sango nodded her head. "Serious. I know at times you've probably thought it was all about taking something else out from under Inuyasha, but it isn't. Sure, he's wanted Tessaiga, though he has his own sword now, but even that heirloom sword isn't enough to keep him from concentrating on you – if it came down to it he'd abandon that fang in a heartbeat to take you."

"But that can't be true, Sango," she cried softly, not wanting to alert the hanyou with the sensitive ears and unsteady temper and have him barge in on this discussion, "he still comes after Inuyasha for the sword!"

"I don't think that's really what he's doing," Sango rebutted, frowning as she thought back over their most recent run-ins with the powerful Sesshoumaru. "I... I think he's training Inuyasha."

At that, Kagome almost choked on a burst of sarcastic laughter. "Oh, come on, Sango – _training_ Inuyasha? He hates his brother and wants that sword – why would he bother teaching him to use it better and make it that much harder to take away from him?"

"To protect you," Sango replied quietly, her voice so low Kagome almost missed it. But she didn't, and her eyes opened wide in surprise. "I think he's come to the realization that he can't force you to leave Inuyasha at this time, so in order to make sure that you are kept safe, even if he's not around, he's teaching Inuyasha to wield that sword better so that you are not harmed." She sighed in frustration. "But that's beside the point right now – the point being that he's marked you as his intended. He's not going to give up, Kagome," she warned. "He will never stop, never give over trying to seduce you to his side."

"Why doesn't he just force me, then?" Kagome asked bitterly, her heart sinking at what Sango was telling her – though really, deep down, after her last confrontation with the shining figure that haunted her dreams and her waking hours with equal facility, she'd known that he wasn't playing and that he meant what he said about wanting her. She may not have understood _why_, but she no longer really doubted his words.

"He doesn't want to break your spirit or harm you in such a manner, Kagome," Sango returned. "Inuyoukai never force themselves on a female – but they _are_ perfectly willing to seduce her affections no matter how long it takes, and I can tell you that once they've chosen someone as firmly as he's chosen you they don't care if they have to chase her for a thousand years – they won't stop until their target has given in."

Kagome was silent for a while as she took all that in. Oddly enough, Sango's warnings had settled a fatalistic calm upon her rather than sending her over the edge into hysterics.

"You said he's marked me," she asked, her voice calm but thin, "what do you mean by that?"

"He's scented you with his musk. It leaves his scent embedded within your own so that any other youkai that cross your path know to stay away – for to touch you means death," Sango responded.

"And why hasn't Inuyasha smelled that and gone off the deep end?" she asked, carefully folding her hands into her lap as she took in what her friend was telling her.

"Shippo and Kirara have been muddling the scents, hoping to keep Inuyasha from leaping off that deep end you were just talking about," she rolled her eyes. "But there's something else," she added, her voice very reluctant now. "Inuyasha doesn't know for sure what's going on, but he suspects something, and that's why he's been watching you so closely. He's also..." she trailed off for a moment, almost sure that what she was about to say would break the girl's unnatural calm, "... well, he's started trying to mark you, too. To keep anyone else from doing so."

Sure enough, Kagome's head whipped up from where she'd been staring at her hands folded tightly together in her lap and her eyes flashed angrily. "He's what?" she ground out sharply, immediately ready to find a certain hanyou and wring his neck.

"You heard me."

"I'm going to kill him!" Kagome's face flushed with anger and she started to shove the dishes into her bag in preparation for storming back to camp and beating a certain presumptuous hanyou over the head with it. "How can he dare try to mark me when he has chosen Kikyou? I am his friend, not his paramour! That jerk! He's trying to force me to stay with him unless he decides to go with Kikyou, isn't he?"

Sango just nodded, leaning back from the girl with slightly wide eyes – Kagome really could be scary sometimes – when her temper got the better of her in such a manner her reiki responded and the girl's raven hair began waving in an invisible wind and fiery sparks flickered all over her body, telling Sango that the girl had reached ignition point on her temper and that Inuyasha was about to get fried.

"Kagome, stop!" she grabbed ahold of her furious friend's arm bravely. "If you go marching into camp and start yelling at Inuyasha about him trying to mark you, it's going to break everything open. Can you imagine the explosion if he finds out that Sesshoumaru has marked you? The Kouga tantrums will seem like mere festival fireworks!"

At that, Kagome's blue eyes that had begun to glow unnaturally faded back to normal and the winds and sparks died down. "Eh? What? Oh... that's right – you said that Shippo and Kirara have been muddling the scents so he doesn't know for sure. But I don't care!" she hissed, her fists clenching. "He has some nerve, trying to mark me – and even more nerve if he gets mad that someone else is! He doesn't own me! And neither does Sesshoumaru!"

"But that's just it, Kagome," Sango said gently, "Inuyasha's also an inu, even if he has a human half. To him, you _do_ belong to him as long as he wants you to. And we both know what Sesshoumaru thinks, so there's no point in going over that."

Kagome's eyes narrowed and sparked a little again. "I don't care if they're both inu – I'm not and no one owns me! Inuyasha can take his temper tantrums and shove them, and Sesshoumaru can go take a long walk off a short pier!"

With an inward sigh, Sango set about trying to calm and soothe her friend's sometimes mercurial temper. It would not do to allow her to go back to camp in the mood she was in – or Sesshoumaru wouldn't even need to scent what Inuyasha had started doing because he would already be flayed open and laid out to dry at Kagome's hands. And while at times Sango wanted to do a little flaying herself, they needed each other to find and defeat Naraku, and that had to take precedence over everything else.

Now she just had to get Kagome to see that and calm down. It would take a little persuasion, but she knew eventually her friend would see the light and cool off.

At least for now. Sango wouldn't want to be in Inuyasha's shoes, though, once Naraku was dead, because if Kagome had her way he'd be joining the spider hanyou and Kikyou in hell – courtesy of the kotodama.

She winced inwardly – _I'm glad I'm not youkai and those necklaces don't work on me!_"

~oOo~

_What am I going to do?_

That thought kept spinning through Kagome's mind all night long as she tossed and turned, well aware that Inuyasha's suspicious eyes were plastered to her but not really caring. If he dared to say one word to her she'd cut loose and let him have it, and to hell with anything else.

But her anger at him didn't answer to her confusion and terror over Sesshoumaru. Yes, terror. Because she was most definitely terrified of what would happen when she gave into him and her own painful desires and he took her over just like she knew he would. Hell, he already had, if she were being strictly honest with herself. She couldn't breathe unless he fed her air from his own lungs, couldn't taste unless he fed her the taste of his own lips.

But while she knew she felt that way, she didn't _want_ to feel like that. She didn't want to desire him, need him. She honestly just wanted to go home, seal the well, and forget that any of this had ever happened.

It would never happen, though – it was far too late, because the dangerous daiyoukai had already infected her. He was in her blood, in her head, in her very soul, and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't evict him.

_So what am I going to do?_

Again that question rang through her mind and she sighed, weary and uncertain and turned over in her bedding, continuing to ignore Inuyasha's burning gaze as she tried to find any way out of this mess that she could – except the obvious one of accepting Sesshoumaru's claim and letting the future take her where it would.

She was honestly surprised that she wasn't angrier than she was at Sesshoumaru's presumption – but she wasn't. It was probably because he'd been verbally claiming her since the very beginning and so him actually taking the step to physically mark her almost seemed like a natural progression, especially since it wasn't anything she could see or feel or scent herself – it almost seemed unreal, no matter what she'd been told.

But it certainly gave the answer as to why she'd been left alone lately by a lot of the youkai they'd fought – while they seemed to go after the others with alacrity, they almost shied away from her, and now she knew why – they were responding to the admittedly light scent of the daiyoukai on her, even underneath Shippo and Kirara's scents.

It was a nice feeling, she had to admit – but was that little bit of safety worth all the damage to her psyche that his claim was causing?

_Not really. Because if he has his way, I will never be able to go home after this is all finished, I won't be able to see my family again, I'll be imprisoned here, five hundred years away from my home and my family and everything I've known all my life. And all for what? Sex? _She blushed horribly as she thought that almost forbidden word, but there was no denying or ridding herself of the reaction in her body that word coupled with Sesshoumaru's face and form caused within her. Even now heat was surging from her small form, and as a loud sniff and then a growl was heard, she knew Inuyasha had picked up on her reaction.

Blushing violently, she opened her eyes and fisted her hands, almost praying for the idiot to say something to her so that she could unleash all her raging frustrations and fears on his foolish head. After a few moments, though, when all he did was growl and then fall silent, she realized that he wasn't going to give her the ammunition she needed and rolled over to lay on her stomach, folding her arms beneath her head and sighing again.

Sooner or later, though, she knew he would say something, and then she was going to cut loose on him and let him know where he could shove his 'claim'. If he wanted to claim something then let him go claim Kikyou. He could leave her out of it.

As her tired mind finally began to shut down, one last thought drifted through the darkness that preceded her dreams...

_If Sesshoumaru were to claim someone else, it would destroy me..._

The truth of that realization burned through her mind like white fire and turned her dreams into nightmares, instead.

~oOo~

Inuyasha watched Kagome toss from one side to the other yet again and snarled inwardly at her actions.

It was obvious that she was extremely conflicted, but what he wanted to know for sure was what was making her so conflicted? Was it the wolf? Or even worse, Sesshoumaru? It had to be one of them, and either way, he wanted nothing more than to kill whoever it was so that she could once more turn her full attention on him.

She was Kikyou's reincarnation. That meant that the soul she carried was meant to be with _him_ – not anyone else, and he wasn't about to let anyone else actually succeed in taking her from him.

Kouga was aggravating, yes – but Inuyasha also didn't truly believe he was a real threat. Kagome had shown no interest in the wolf or his claims from what he could see, being polite and even friendly to him when they crossed his path but not encouraging his advances at all.

Sesshoumaru, however... he was most definitely a threat. Inuyasha's eyes narrowed with hatred and he glared up into the sky with crimson washing across his vision at the mere thought of his bastard half-brother taking Kagome away from him.

What he didn't understand was why his brother seemed to be so fascinated with Kagome. She was human and not trained at all in the use of her strength, which he had expected would only cause the arrogant Sesshoumaru to look down on her even more. Instead, his brother seemed fascinated by her – every time he came upon their group he would seem to be concentrating on he, Inuyasha – but it was all a lie, because the one he was really paying attention to was Kagome – and whenever he appeared in their midst, no matter the excuse he gave, he would almost instantly scent of arousal.

Inuyasha fisted his right hand and then flexed it open again; he watched with blank eyes as the thin moonlight filtering through the branches of the tree he was in flashed off the razor-sharp tips of his claws. _Keh. He can go find his own human to get aroused by, because if it happens just one more time I'm going to lose it and gut the bastard. Let him go join our father on the other side. The one thing I will never let him have besides the Tessaiga is Kagome._

Once again, the rustling sound from the girl in question's bedding drew his eyes, and then they flashed redly again as a tiny moan sounded from her and heat surged from her small form. He growled... _She'd better not be thinking of that fool Sesshoumaru, _he thought, anger simmering within at the thought that she was probably doing just that. It irked him to no end that Kagome always scented of heat anytime she laid eyes on his half-sibling – just as he did at sight and scent of her.

She'd just have to get over it. She and her soul belonged to him, and he wasn't about to give her over to anyone else.

Especially not the half-brother he hated almost as much as Naraku.

~oOo~

Shivering as a cold chill ran down her back, Kagome glanced behind her for seemingly the hundredth time, but though she still didn't see anyone there, she knew someone _was_ there – someone was watching her.

She'd come home for a few days rest from the tension with Inuyasha as well as to make up as much of her schoolwork and missed tests as she could, and that was why she was so late walking home this evening – she'd just finished taking several of her make-up tests and was finally on her way home.

It was already dark, and the streets in the residential section of the city that the shrine lay in were quiet – most people were inside with their families eating their dinner. That actually made her feel even more uncomfortable, and she couldn't help speeding up as she tried to walk as fast as she could towards the shrine steps, hoping that whoever was stalking her had no desire to climb so many stairs and would take themselves off somewhere else.

She almost stumbled in shock, however, when the shrine barriers, put up centuries ago and still functional, went off and a flash of powerful youki was revealed for a moment as whoever it was overwhelmed the barriers and forced them to let him or her inside the boundaries. Stunned, because she wasn't carrying the shards and so couldn't understand why a youkai would be following her, let alone over the fact that there was actually a youkai in her era, she spun on the steps, almost overbalancing and falling as she did. But when she lay eyes on the being that was standing behind her, watching her with a calm expression that belied the flare of hunger she'd felt from him, she almost had a nervous breakdown.

"S-Sesshoumaru," she whispered through a tight throat, her knees weakening as she dropped down onto the step beneath her. "What are you doing here?"

The daiyoukai, for that was indeed who it was, no matter the fact that he was wearing more modern clothing, watched her silently for a moment and then climbed up the few steps separating them, coming to a halt with narrowing eyes as she skittered up a few steps herself to escape him, her hands clenching the stone of the steps so hard that her knuckles were white.

"You should have known that I would never allow you to escape me, Kagome," he said after a moment, his voice soft and deep, calm and warm – unlike she'd ever heard it before. It sent a shaft of heat and longing through her.

His eyes had a strange expression in them – almost... dare she think it, compassion? She shook her head frantically at the thought. _No, its not possible! Not Sesshoumaru – he doesn't know what that word even means! _But she knew she was lying to herself, as Rin's smiling face flashed in front of her eyes as well as the faces of the panther divas that he'd saved.

"Don't come any closer," she warned huskily as she stared at him warily, the hand he had been reaching out to help her up with coming to a halt as his eyes narrowed and then flickered with an emotion Kagome had no intention of admitting she'd seen. It wasn't possible, and so she would ignore what her eyes were telling her – what her heart was telling her. She watched as he drew his hand back slowly and continued to look at her.

That was when it registered that he had both arms. Eyes widening, she looked at his wrists, uncertain if the arm was his own or stolen from someone else - after all, he'd done that before. But the stripes wrapping around the returned hand told the story – the arm was, indeed, his own, and she couldn't stop the thought that she was glad he had it back from surfacing, as much as she hated herself for it.

"How'd that happen?" she asked, tilting her head to indicate his hand; he clenched his fist absently as her gaze touched it.

"I cannot tell you, for it has yet to happen in that era and I cannot give the future away," he replied after a moment. Before Kagome could blink, though, he was standing right before her; she fell back with a shocked squeak, only to find herself being pulled upright by that same hand she'd just been staring at before she could hit her head on the stone steps. The jolt that ran up her arm at his touch forced a gasp from her and she almost fell over again as a smile just tilted the corners of his lips. "And though you would still try to deny me, your body gives the lie away, little woman," he said, satisfaction-laden tones stroking her need for him higher.

She tugged at her hand, the haze in her mind beginning to fade as her temper began to heat up; it was at this moment that she remembered what Sango had told her just days before – that he had marked her.

"Let go of me, Sesshoumaru," she snapped, tugging harder on her hand and actually growling when he did not let go. "I don't care who you are – no one owns me, least of all you! So how dare you 'mark' me as though I were some piece of property! Go find some female inuyoukai to claim, because I belong only to myself, not you or Inuyasha and I never will!" she hissed, just too angry at that point to care if she angered the daiyoukai or not.

Her voice choked off in her throat as Sesshoumaru actually laughed, a soft chuckle from deep in his chest that was filled with undeniable satisfaction. "Oh, but you do belong to me, Kagome. Would you like proof of that?" he asked, still holding on to her hand, which was now trembling.

"P-proof?" she managed to get out after a few moments around a tongue that suddenly felt thick and unwieldy in her mouth.

Finally letting go her hand, he reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a wallet. Flipping it open, he looked down with a smug grin at what he was holding, and then turned it to face her. "Yes, miko, proof. Look."

Her throat closed up entirely when her eyes fell on the photograph he was holding and she was unable to even breathe, let alone respond. Because there, standing wrapped in Sesshoumaru's embrace was a slightly older version of herself. She was smiling, looking up at the male holding her with adulation and love...

"_No! Never!_" she screamed at him in denial before turning and running up the rest of the steps to the shrine, in her panic heading for the wellhouse and the rift in time instead of her house.

And Sesshoumaru watched her go, a small, slightly sad smile on his face.

"I'm sorry, beloved, but I will not give up. I refuse to lose you, no matter how upset you get," he whispered, before turning and making his way back into the shadows and disappearing from sight.

_You __will__ thank me for this someday._

_You already have._

~oOo~

A/N: I know I haven't answered everyone's reviews, and I beg your forebearance; I have been so busy working on this, Splinter'd Realities, and my own original full length fiction that I have finally started, a supernatural fantasy romance, that I just haven't had time to answer anything. I hope you do not stop letting me know what you all think, though - there's been many a time when I would be deadlocked on a story, terrible writer's block, and someone's review would give me a new idea and a second wind.

I hope everyone enjoys this newest chapter...

Dozo yoroshiku onegai shimasu

(Please look kindly upon me)

Amber


	8. Scheming

**Chapter 8 Scheming**

Sesshoumaru leaned back and stared into the night skies above Nihon with blank eyes. Anyone seeing him would think him completely collected and calm... but they would be wrong.

His thoughts were scattered and his emotions roiled agitatedly within him, and if his half-brother had been anywhere nearby, he would have killed the pest without an ounce of remorse.

That Kagome was, miraculously, still alive after her close encounter with not only Mukotsu's poison and attempted rape, but Renkotsu's attempt to burn her to death, as well, was the _only_ reason that he had not searched the incompetent fool out and already done so.

He had watched as the wolf prince, Kouga, had taken Inuyasha to task over Kagome's condition and for the first time had approved of something that wolf had said. Not that it made any difference to him – both his brother and Kouga were fools who would be made to pay for their insistence on claiming something that belonged to him.

His brow furrowed deeply with aggravation as he wondered why neither male had realized that Kagome was marked; however, he had not been able to be close enough to her lately to be able to tell if the scent had been perhaps purified off by her reiki except when killing Mukotsu, and though that so-called poison hadn't been dangerous to him in any way, it _had_ been smelly enough to block most of the scents in the room.

"Inuyasha's inability to sense my mark is easily understood. He is, after all, simply a hanyou, and his senses are dulled by that wretched human blood. But the wolf claims full blood status – and yet, he is just as oblivious to my mark as Inuyasha is. She must be purifying the scent of it from her... I will simply have to strengthen my mark until she cannot overcome it," he decided, paying no attention to the toad or child that were both looking at him strangely.

He knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that as soon as his half-sibling noticed that mark, he would be challenging him for the female, and Sesshoumaru looked forward with excitement to that for a moment as he daydreamed about killing the hanyou as he'd wanted to do for so long. There would be consequences, though – he would only push Kagome away with his actions if he tried and he knew it.

So how to go about ridding himself of his idiot brother _without_ taking the blame?

Eyes narrowing dangerously, he smirked as a vision of the undead miko passed behind his eyes. Yes... she was the key. In order to separate the miko of his desires from the brother he had never wanted he would have to utilize the undead one.

His expression closed off again as he began plotting, and Jaken shivered where he sat. His Lord's obsession with the human girl was becoming dangerous.

_Kami preserve us, _he thought to himself as he warmed his hands at the fire. _He will dismantle the entire world just to have her._

_I wish we'd never met her._

~oOo~

"What is it that you wish to say to me?"

Sesshoumaru studied the undead miko, noting her coldness, the absolute absence of any kind of warmth, and his eyes narrowed just slightly. He hated having to deal with her, but for his ends to be met, he had to.

"If you wish to destroy Naraku, he has been hiding behind the barrier of Mount Hakurei in order to reform his body, which Kagome destroyed." He didn't miss the flash of irritation in her eyes at the mention of the younger woman's near destruction of their enemy, but didn't react, continuing to push forward his plan. "However, he is soon to emerge since the barrier has fallen, and then you will have your chance."

He stood cold and remote as the undead priestess studied him in turn. "You are also after Naraku. Why give him up to me?"

A slight smirk crossed his face as an odd flash lit his eyes for a moment, and he said, "Naraku will die by my hand. But I am not without a bit of fairness – if you can come across him and kill him, then so be it." He was lying through his fangs, though... he knew very well that she didn't have the power to kill Naraku. That was not his problem, however; since she was determined to face the insect anyway, he decided he'd let her. And if she got injured, all the better, because that would send the whelp off again, further widening the distance that was slowly opening between the brat and Kagome.

He didn't believe, however, that Naraku would actually be able to kill Kikyou, either, at least not yet – and so she would only continue to pull the little bastard away from Kagome, which was what all this was about in the end, anyway.

The more distance that opened between the two the easier it would be for Kagome to begin to accept his advances – she was already weakening, her want for him a living thing within her, and soon, very soon, she would be ready for more – for him to press himself on her more. He could hardly wait; eyes falling closed he smiled faintly, a dangerous expression that had Kikyou drawing back in sudden wariness as she watched him closely, wondering what he was really after.

It was clear that there was something in this for him; he wouldn't give up such information for her sake – she was under no illusions and knew that he did not like her, but that he left her alone for certain reasons of his own that she would dearly love to know.

However, the only way for that to happen was for him to actually tell her what he was up to himself.

"It is clear that there is something in this for you, and 'fairness'," she said, with a contemptuous twist of her lips, "has nothing to do with it. One wonders what the great daiyoukai of the West could need that he would willingly give up Naraku's whereabouts."

Sesshoumaru's eyes opened and went flat and deadly and Kikyou shivered; he was the most dangerous being she'd ever come across, more dangerous even than Naraku, and she decided that it might be best not to continue to question him.

"That is for me to know, undead one. Take what information I have given you and use it or not – it matters not to me," he said indifferently as he turned away.

He was lying, of course, for he certainly wanted her to take what he'd told her and act on it – and she would, he knew it as he knew himself, because she would be unable to pass up the chance to face the being that had killed her and set her on the path she now trod.

But she didn't have to know that and so he went on his way, pushing her from his mind as he turned it to Naraku's destruction. The spider hanyou had become an impediment to gaining what he wanted; he knew that the fool would have to be eliminated before he could claim the woman he desired with every beat of his youkai heart.

"And so you will die, Naraku, because I will not wait for very much longer to claim her..."

"My Kagome," he purred as he disappeared into the mists surrounding the mountain.

_Mine._

~oOo~

Still very shaky from their near-death experience inside Mount Hakurei as it convulsed in its death throes, Kagome shivered as she sat wrapped in her morose thoughts. The others, just as exhausted from their ordeal, were slumped against the slope of the now broken mountain, sleeping the sleep of the innocent and wearied.

She wished she could join them.

But worry for Inuyasha along with her own emotional turmoil kept her awake and watching, hoping that he would return soon. She wasn't sure what had happened, but Inuyasha had set her down as soon as they'd escaped Naraku's trap inside the mountain and then disappeared, and they hadn't seen him since. Kouga had stuck around for a while, but she'd mostly ignored him, her worries and fears so heavy on her mind that the wolf prince barely managed to scratch the surface of her awareness.

No... the one taking up all the prime real estate was, of course, her nemesis, her desire, the one that was becoming twined within her very soul...

Sesshoumaru.

She hadn't seen him for a while until that little episode with that disgusting Mukotsu, yet her awareness of him hadn't faltered at all – she could almost feel him, knew where he was at any moment, and even more so when he was focusing on her – which was pretty much all the time. The only other thing that held any of his attention was his vendetta against Naraku.

It had been bad enough dealing with her own frustrating desires, but to add his to the mix? She almost didn't know who she was anymore, and she was so tired of fighting what his presence did to her. Inuyasha was always preoccupied with Kikyou, and he didn't even bother to try to hide it. So why should she hide her preoccupation with his brother?

Truthfully, she was almost at the point where she couldn't fight her desires anymore. They were overwhelming her, confusing her and yet drawing her with every breath she took. The daiyoukai had told her once before that Inuyasha only saw her as a piece of his former lover, Kikyou, but that _he_ saw her for who she was. It was a seductive concept, to be wanted for oneself and not as an understudy for someone else – a seductive concept that was drawing her emotionally battered psyche closer to the arrogant male with every moment that she existed.

She sighed, her small form slumping with weariness she couldn't hide. Was it so bad to be wanted for herself – for _Kagome,_ and not Kikyou? For Kagome, and not a shard detector? Truth be told, though she'd been informed over and over that she was the other woman's reincarnation, she had never felt a connection to the undead miko – at all. If that was truly who she'd been in another life, wouldn't she have a sense of familiarity to her?

Her deliberations were interrupted as a movement in the fog ahead caught her eye, and she wasn't at all surprised to see Sesshoumaru.

An almost fatalistic sense of destiny stole over her and her shoulders bowed just that little bit more as he met her eyes and held them for several long seconds. It was a meaningful look, an intensity to it that held her completely captive to his will. He knew it, too, a satisfied smirk curling his lips before he broke the contact and faded back into the mist, his message delivered. He was near and watching over them, though Inuyasha was not. Nothing would be allowed to harm her.

It was also a seductive concept, just like being wanted for herself, that all that power and magnificence that was Inuyasha's older brother was so focused on her. To be wanted in such a manner... was that not every girl's dream? Why was it that she fought him so hard, then? What would it hurt if she were to accept him, accept his claim and allow him to court her? She shook her head, a dazed confusion breaking her thoughts. _No... I can't! I can't accept him! He's youkai, I'm human. He hates humans. He lives here, belongs here, and I... don't. We could never be together – it would never work. Would it?_

It was becoming harder and harder to remember all the reasons that she could never give in to him. Especially after seeing him in the modern era. He hadn't been lying when he'd told her that she would never escape him – if he was here, _and_ there, then there was little point in quibbling about where he belonged – about where she belonged.

A frown crossed her brow and she bit her lip, worrying it between her teeth as she forced herself to take out all her reasons for fighting Sesshoumaru and look at them in the light of day. What she saw made her feel guilty and foolish – a child pretending to be an adult.

She had so many reasons as to why she could never give in to the daiyoukai – and yet when she took out all those reasons and really looked at them, most of them were just excuses. There were only two things that were actually impediments to her accepting Sesshoumaru's claim; her own stubborn nature that abhorred being 'claimed' like a piece of property – and Inuyasha.

He would see her acceptance of his brother as a betrayal, despite the Kikyou situation. But the truth was that she wasn't attracted to Inuyasha in the way she was to his brother. Deep inside, she knew this was meant, could almost feel the red cord of fate drawing her to him. Inuyasha wasn't attracted to her in that manner, either – not in any meaningful way, anyway. Sure, he'd seen her naked a couple of times and he had a normal male's appreciation for a shapely female form, but it didn't go beyond that and she knew it.

It wasn't hard to figure out why Inuyasha was so possessive of her, though. Her supposed tie to Kikyou. She grimaced; she wished there was a way to tell if she was her reincarnation or not. She really wanted nothing to do with that woman – or her spiteful arrogance. So why was she so willing to play along with Inuyasha's possessiveness, even to the point of denying something so central to her very being that it was breaking little pieces of her away every moment that she fought against her need?

_I know Sango wanted me not to say anything, but maybe... maybe I should tell Inuyasha that I'm not his and never will be. I can't take much more of this... _

But in the end, she knew that she couldn't say anything. Not now. There was too much at stake right now. Naraku and the Shikon no Tama had to come first. Anything else had to wait, and with that thought she determinedly pushed all thoughts of the daiyoukai she was falling for more and more to the back of her mind. Now was the time for duty.

Anything else was irrelevant.

Deep down, though, she knew that she was lying to herself again – because nothing could push Sesshoumaru out of her thoughts, out of her mind.

Not Naraku, not Inuyasha, and not even her own desire to escape him, which was steadily dissipating as time went on and he seduced her to his side more and more.

And Kagome drew just that much closer to giving in to his desires – and her own.

~oOo~

Sesshoumaru paused in his forward motion, a faint frown crossing his face and his hand coming up to press against his chestplate in confusion as a distant sense of pain skittered through him.

_Why do I feel pain? _he wondered, ignoring the squawking and irritating questions of his retainer and Ah-Uhn's restless lowing as he tried to figure out what was wrong. There wasn't anything physically wrong with him, and indeed, whatever he was feeling, it wasn't coming from his body.

It was more ephemeral than that, and it took him several long moments as he finally came to a complete halt to realize that the pain was _emotional_. But he hadn't been thinking of his father or the circumstances of the distant past, which had always been the only things that ever caused such feelings within him.

That was, of course, until he had become involved with Kagome. Lately he had been unable to maintain his emotional distance from the girl he wanted, and the disturbance was only getting worse as time went on.

Yes, he wanted her, and he had no problem admitting that. But while he'd been aware of the fact that he would have to make her fall in love with him, he had not intended to allow his own emotions to become quite so involved. Love was not necessary, after all.

But apparently when an inu became so trapped in a female's scent that his blood became involved as his had done, keeping his emotions separate was impossible and so an even tighter link was developing than he'd expected.

Sesshoumaru's frown deepened as another pulse of pain went through him and deliberately focused on the link he held to Kagome, despite the discomfort he felt at admitting how much she was inside his defenses. And then his eyes bled red and he snarled – that fool hanyou had once again left Kagome in danger and somehow, Naraku had gained a foothold into her soul. He could feel the pain of it; the grasping fingers that were damaging her so deeply were finding an echo inside his own soul and if he didn't put a stop to it, Naraku might also find his way inside him to the deepest levels of who he was - and that besides the havoc he was already wreaking on the woman who belonged to _him_.

"Jaken," he snapped, "find a place and make camp. And if you lose Rin..." he trailed off, not needing to finish; Jaken would have paled at his Lord's words because he knew the consequences if he did lose the small human child and so he saw no need to waste words finishing out his sentence. He took to the air before his vassal could even respond, his mind already miles away in the direction he could feel Kagome.

_What is your reason for abandoning her this time, Inuyasha? If she were not so against it I would have already taken her away from you, unlike the Tessaiga. I have allowed you to keep that, allowed it because it is better to have a fool hanyou brother than a demented youkai brother who would be nothing more than an indiscriminate killing machine._

_Chichi-ue... I still do not understand. Why did you sire such a weak being – and then give him the Tessaiga? Tenseiga would have worked just as well to bind his youkai blood, and yet you left me with no weapon to defend my lands. Inuyasha has nothing to defend except himself and that clay miko and yet you thought him of more worth than me or the West. And now he even endangers my female..._

He shook his head with a bitter downturn of his lips, his angst over his father's faithlessness worse at the current time because of the pain that Kagome was feeling that had breached his own defenses because of his ties to her. And he couldn't keep his mind from the pain of the past despite his anger over the danger that Kagome was in, _yet again_, because of his damned brother, _because_ of that same pain. It was a vicious, uncontrollable circle and he hated anything that he could not control.

"Where is that mutt?" he muttered savagely as he searched for his brother's youki, determined to force the boy away from the undead miko and teach him what his true responsibilities were – protecting Kagome. She had accepted him as her alpha when she joined his quest and they had basically formed a pack, which meant it was his duty to protect her and his other packmates before anyone else – that was what being alpha meant. It wasn't a free pass to lord it over those below you in the hierarchy or mistreat and abandon them, it was a trust – a sacred one.

That was why he'd always fought so hard when younger to control his instincts to also form a pack around himself – he wanted to conquer, to follow Supreme Conquest, and having a pack to protect would have made that exceedingly difficult. And besides that, he'd not wanted to be responsible for anything but himself and his own desires. He'd certainly not wanted to be put in the position his sire had been, dying to protect someone else. Especially someone so much weaker than he with such a miniscule lifespan. His father had squandered centuries of life, possibly even millenia with his choice to protect that insipid hime he'd wed and Sesshoumaru wasn't going to fall to that same fate.

And he hadn't. Kagome was nothing like that weak human hime of his father's, and even though she didn't know how to control her power, she still had it in abundance and could be trained easily. It wasn't even her fault that she didn't know how; he'd found that she hadn't even known she had any power until she'd been brought here because for some reason, people in her time didn't believe in such power and had taught her the same thing. It wasn't 'til she'd been pulled through the well that she'd learned otherwise and Inuyasha was the one that wouldn't allow her time to train, always pushing for her to find the shards of that jewel. She also wasn't going to die like some puerile mortal; that was one thing he'd scented very easily when first meeting her – she didn't carry the stench of creeping death that all mortals did and so he wasn't wasting his time protecting something that would only turn around and die on him in a few short years.

He was pulled from his thoughts by the scent of his worthless sibling and descended from the sky like a comet, his anger forcing him to speed at the faithless hanyou so he could all the sooner get his hands on him.

Landing with an explosion of dirt and rocks that blew outward from him with the force of it, Sesshoumaru immediately attacked his brother, Tokiijin flashing out like a viper to clash against the Tessaiga as his brother, stunned by the unexpected and vicious attack, barely managed to draw it in time to catch his blade.

"What the fuck is your problem, Sesshoumaru?!" he shouted above the terrible din of the two swords as they sparked against each other.

So very angered as he felt yet more agony from Kagome, the daiyoukai's eyes bled crimson and his sword screamed as it mirrored its wielder's rage and literally exploded with fire and its kenatsu, which sent the shocked hanyou flying.

"Where is Kagome, you fool?" he snarled as he flash-stepped towards his brother's landing place, the tip of his furious sword pressing to the boy's throat.

"Why the fuck is it any of your business, bastard?!" he snarled back, ignoring the sword at his throat as his own rage at Sesshoumaru's interest in Kagome was called forth. "She ain't your concern!"

"And there is where you are wrong, Inuyasha," his brother's voice retorted scathingly, "she is most definitely my concern. As is the fact that because you left her alone again, she has been taken by Naraku, you bakayarou!"

Inuyasha froze. "How the fuck do you know?" he asked suspiciously, his voice little more than a low growl.

"That is for me to know, mutt, and you to find out later. Nonetheless, she is in agony right now because of your faithless behavior. You will leave right this minute and find her, or I will disembowel you and make an end of you now," he ordered icily, Tokiijin still drawn and pointing at his brother.

"If she's in such danger, then why are you bothering with me, huh? Why didn't you just go save her yourself?"

The sword tip did not waver one bit. "Because she is not ready for me to take over as her protector yet, Inuyasha. I have been patient with her loyalty to you until now, but if you fail just one more time because you were off chasing a dead woman – or for any other reason - I will take her whether she is ready or not."

Brow furrowing in suspicion, Inuyasha desperately wanted to question his brother further, but he couldn't delay and leave Kagome in danger just to fight with the bastard. He'd just have to find him afterward and _then_ fight with him. Tessaiga slid back within its sheath in a blast of light as Inuyasha leapt lightly back to his feet. "Keh. I'll go, Sesshoumaru, but after I get Kagome back I'm comin' looking for you and you're going to answer some questions." Without waiting for an answer the hanyou wheeled around and took off, heading for the last place he'd seen his pack members so he could track them from that point.

Still, he couldn't just forget Kikyou or the supposed rumor of her he'd heard.

_Where are you, Kikyou? Are you really still alive, or was this all just a trap?_

That question echoed mockingly inside his mind as he raced across the countryside – as did the ones about what was really going on between Kagome and his bastard of a brother.

~oOo~

"Kagura."

The wind witch tapped her tessen against her chin, watching with narrowed eyes as Sesshoumaru stepped out of the trees that she had been heading towards. Naraku had been busy for the last few days plotting something and so she had gained some little freedom that she had spent flying wherever the notion had taken her. It hadn't taken much for it to take her towards the daiyoukai she was so enamored of.

"Sesshoumaru," she purred in response when he stopped, shivering under his steady but cold gaze as she let her hand and the tessen it held fall to her side. "Was there something you wanted, perhaps?" she asked archly.

"You took something that belongs to me," he said, his voice empty of anything except that endless cold he was so famous for. "If you know what is good for you, you will not do it again."

She blinked, taken aback and unable to respond for a few moments. _What? _

"That was quite some time ago, Sesshoumaru," she replied after she got her mouth back under her control. "I have not touched your little human child since. Besides, didn't you threaten your toad well enough that he would make sure to resist someone taking her again much better than he did when I took her before? And you know it was at Naraku's orders – I don't want to obey him but I have no choice, so it was he that took her, not me," she added, defending herself.

His expression did not change. "What was Naraku's purpose in taking Kagome?" he asked, not answering any of her assertions at all.

Now definitely astonished, Kagura stared at him. "Kagome?" she murmured, certain she had heard wrong. _Why's he talking about her?_

"You heard my words. Answer."

She shivered then, not liking the suddenly dangerous edge to his cold voice. "Since he killed Kikyou, Kagome's the only one that can see the shards of the jewel, and he needs to find the last of them to complete the Shikon no Tama," she replied obediently, too afraid of what this male was capable of to deny him the answers he sought. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, though. He tried to control her and she rejected him – yet again. He wasn't able to get his hands on her soul as he wanted, and then Inuyasha showed up and took her back, anyway," she finished dismissively. She held herself quiet for a moment, obviously wondering if she should continue, but then decided to. She couldn't help herself. "Why... why are you so concerned about that girl? She's just another human."

He continued to stare at her coldly; she shuddered softly, that sense of danger increasing the longer he watched her. Perhaps she shouldn't have asked that...

"You are mistaken. You do not have the senses that I do - Kagome is anything but mortal. And I already told you that you had taken something that belongs to me; what belongs to me is obviously of concern to me." With that he turned on his heel and faded back into the trees, dismissing the wind witch from his thoughts with little care that he was leaving behind a scorned female – or what her reaction might be to the knowledge that he'd just given her. So what if she told Naraku of his claim – the hanyou had tried repeatedly to corrupt Kagome and had failed every time. If he tried again he would simply continue to fail.

Kagura was, indeed, feeling the sting of spurned feelings as she realized what it was he'd really been telling her; she could not believe that he had actually claimed that insipid little girl in such a manner. And to say that she was not mortal, that she was more than human? Angry that she had just been rejected, since she knew he could scent out her attraction to him and instead of accepting her had claimed Kagome, she reached up and pulled a feather from her hair adornment and tossed it down, climbing aboard the now enlarged feather with a final scowl into the trees. _His claim won't mean much when Naraku kills her, now will it? I don't need him, anyway – I can find another way to free myself, and once I do, I'll find someone stronger than Sesshoumaru that wants a youkai female and not some milksop little human miko._

Sesshoumaru watched from back under the trees as Kagura flew off, his golden eyes flashing, then turned and disappeared into the shadows of the forest.

He wasn't fool enough not to know that Naraku would see his claim as more reason to go after Kagome; however, he also knew that Inuyasha had sworn not to leave her alone after this last fiasco. The boy truly did care for her, though he was still a fool over the undead, and he would be much more careful with Kagome from now on. If Naraku went after Kagome and killed Inuyasha in the process, then she could not blame he, Sesshoumaru for the brat's death – nor would she be able to give good reason to deny his guardianship of her, for she would need a new protector in order to continue in her duty of taking the jewel from Naraku and ridding the world of it. He would even agree to allow the slayer, kitsune, and monk to follow; their presence would not only make her feel more comfortable but would provide added protection for Rin when he was called away from her for whatever reason. Jaken was just not enough, as Kagura's earlier words had reminded him.

Game, set, and match, and to the victor would go the spoils, for his brother would be dead and he would have Kagome – and Tessaiga.

So much for his father's choice of his little human and her half-blooded brat over him, his first son and heir.

~oOo~

A/N: And we have yet more scheming by our fav daiyoukai. Don't worry – things are going to be changing in the next several chapters quite a bit.

Amber


	9. Riding the Edge

**Chapter 9 Riding the Edge**

Tenseiga's keen edge flashed in the ambient starlight of the moonless night as Sesshoumaru tilted its blade and watched the steely play of light over it.

_I still do not understand why I was given this sword. _He glanced at a peacefully sleeping Rin and his eyes softened just a little on her sweet face. He could certainly not deny, however, that he was glad he'd chosen to test it on the little human girl-child – she'd become less of a traveling companion and more of a daughter to him over the time they'd been together, as strange as that truth was when taken out and looked at in the light of day.

_But for this sword Rin would still be dead and I... I would still be alone._

Sure there was Jaken – but Jaken didn't count. He was more annoyance and go-fer than anything else. He could only be glad that Rin reminded him of a young Kagome – that was why, after all, he'd allowed her to follow him originally. After she'd been revived by his testing of Tenseiga, he should have taken her to a human village and left her there to be raised amongst her own kind. But... he had so wanted to understand Kagome that he had allowed the little girl to stay with him so that he could study her and hopefully gain more of an insight into the older girl.

_She could almost be... Kagome's pup, for she resembles her physically almost as much as in personality, and since the only way Kagome will ever have pups is through me, Rin would be... ours._

_Our pup._

_And this is all because of Tenseiga. _The keen edge flashed again as he stared at it, and he smiled thinly. _A sword that cannot cut anything of physical form. Only Chichi-ue would have thought of such a thing. _He sighed lightly and slid the sword back into its sheath, then ran his fingers through his hair, brushing the lock back over his shoulder as he turned his gaze up to the stars.

Naraku was becoming quite desperate to find the last shards of the jewel as well as rid himself of his human heart so that he would no longer be vulnerable to Kikyou. It was something that he, himself, could understand; the desire to be rid of his heart so he would not be held back by his emotions. Would that it were so easy to be able to say that he did not have any feelings towards Kagome save for lust.

However, Naraku's schemes were pushing him more and more into direct conflict with he, Sesshoumaru, because Naraku was attempting, in his own fashion, to walk the same path as he had always done – the path of Supreme Conquest. And after all, there could be only one conqueror, not two. His lip curled up in contempt, then. _As if a half-breed could ever defeat this one – even with the jewel._

The hanyou's weakness, however, was such that the only way he could even come close to that path _was_ by using the jewel, because his own strength was far too meager to ever suffice. As far as Sesshoumaru was concerned, the only conquest that counted was done using your own strength and power, for if you used others or even an artifact such as the Shikon no Tama then the conquest wasn't really yours – it belonged to another, which in this case, was the jewel.

But because of the bastard's single-minded pursuit of the Shikon no Tama, he was beginning to leave himself vulnerable – just a little. Naraku was, truly, a brilliant strategist, even Sesshoumaru with all his prejudice could not deny that. He was the ultimate puppeteer, creating useful marionettes to carry out his will while yet leaving their master to hide away in safety. But birthing incarnations with their own wills and power was dangerous – they could and would turn on you the moment they thought they had a chance. Just look at Kagura's ploys to escape the hanyou's control.

He watched a falling star light up the sky idly as he thought about the female youkai that scented so much of the twisted spider. He knew that she wanted to be freed of Naraku's influence so she could then choose her own fate, but the truth was that she couldn't be. She could never truly be freed of the hanyou, because it was the hanyou that had birthed her with the assistance of the Shikon jewel and her life force was also his. If he died, Kagura would also. But he was completely aware that the wind witch had no idea that was the case, either, and that was why she wanted someone to kill her master so badly.

It was a bit of information that might just come in handy, if he held on to it and then used it when it would have the best effect. _After all, why not use the incarnations he created to use against us, against him, instead? It would be the ultimate irony. _

A disgruntled look crossed his face, then. _If father had not handed Tessaiga to Inuyasha, I could have already destroyed the hanyou and would not be forced to scheme against him. As much as I despised those so-called Four War Gods, at least my opponent, weak as he was, used his own skills against me in open combat. Instead, the spider hides and manipulates others so that he will remain __safe,_he thought scathingly.

As always, thoughts of Tessaiga brought on thoughts of his disdained brother, and for a moment he didn't react to the strong scent of the hanyou because he had just been thinking on him. That changed when the crimson fire rat-clad form of his half-brother stalked out from beneath the trees to confront him.

_Speak of the devil... _"What are you doing here, Inuyasha?" he asked, keeping his voice low so as not to wake Rin.

Inuyasha also glanced at the sleeping child, then shot a glower at Jaken. "Keh. I suggest we take this someplace else, bastard, because it _is_ going to get loud and I don't wanna wake the kid up."

"For once you make sense, hanyou," he replied, ignoring the insult, before turning and leading the way out of his camp. They walked for some distance, eventually entering a large clearing with a slightly dilapidated hut in one corner of it, and he stopped and turned around to face the boy. He said nothing, waiting, knowing it would aggravate his brother.

He was right, although Inuyasha was already aggravated enough.

Drawing Tessaiga, he pointed it at his older sibling. "Now you're gonna tell me what's really going on between you and Kagome. After you're done, you're gonna disappear and not come near her ever again."

Not impressed with the sword pointed at him or his brother's loose speech, Sesshoumaru cocked a brow and simply continued staring at his brother. "As if this Sesshoumaru would ever do what a mere hanyou told him to. This one owes you nothing – not even explanations. If you wish to know, ask Kagome – perhaps she will feel like answering you."

"Damn you, bastard!" Inuyasha shouted as he transformed Tessaiga with just a thought and immediately attacked his brother. "You're gonna answer me this time! What the hell do you want with Kagome?"

Sesshoumaru held his place until the last second, only moving when the fang was beginning to arc down on his unprotected head; in a burst of light and graceful movement he unsheathed Tenseiga and caught his brother's blade on it. He brought his arm down and then around so that it was close to his chest with both swords spitting sparks from their contact, leaving his idiot sibling to struggle futilely to break through his guard.

"What'sa matter, Sesshoumaru?" he panted. "Tryin' to force yourself on Kagome and throwing temper tantrums because she doesn't want you? She knows who she belongs to!"

Just then, Kagome came running from inside the hut where she'd been trying to sleep; she heard Inuyasha's words and turned red with anger as her gaze narrowed dangerously. It was clear the hanyou would be paying for that assertion at some point.

Eyes darkening a little in pleasure at the idea, Sesshoumaru smirked as he flung his brother away from him. "Oh, how you wish that were so, Inuyasha." He shrugged as his brother ran at him again. "But saying it does not make it true. Kagome is not yours, nor will she ever be. Deal with it."

Once again the two blades met as Inuyasha's worsening temper caused his eyes to flash redly. "Fuck you, asshole! Kagome's human! You hate humans, so stay the fuck away!"

"I've had enough of your childish banter and vulgar speech, hanyou," Sesshoumaru returned coolly, once more flinging his brother's body away from him with disgust. "I have better things to do than waste time throwing insults at the likes of you." He turned, getting ready to slide Tenseiga back into its sheath, but twisted and brought his sword up as Tessaiga came at him again. He was slightly surprised at how fast his brother was now moving, but in the end it would avail him nothing.

"Shut up and fight me, you slobbering, one-armed freak! Don't turn your back on me!"

Sesshoumaru's gaze slid to the side where Kagome was still standing, wringing her hands worriedly as she stared at the two males fighting – over her, though she hadn't really grasped that yet. He could see the hurt and fear in her eyes as well as the anger, though it seemed that his brother either couldn't see it or didn't care. Either way, it was unacceptable to him.

"You amaze me, Inuyasha. You still wish to fight me knowing how much it will hurt Kagome. Do you care nothing for her at all?" he asked mockingly. "Pull your head out of the hole you have buried it in and learn to accept reality." With that, he shoved the hanyou away from him just a little and then reversed his sword, hitting his sibling in the head with the pommel and knocking him on his ass. As Inuyasha lay on the ground trying to focus his eyesight again, Sesshoumaru turned to lock gazes with the object of his obsession. He sniffed lightly as he took the opportunity to get a good whiff of her scent so that he could figure out why the hanyou and ookami hadn't noticed her mark.

His own eyes reddened a little when he caught the strong scents of the kitsune and neko that traveled with her. So... they were muddling the scents, were they? No matter... he could take care of that.

Kagome almost fell over backwards as Sesshoumaru was suddenly standing right in front of her, so close she could feel his body heat. She swallowed and took a step back, only to watch as the wickedly beautiful youkai Lord matched her step back with one of his own forward.

"S-Sesshoumaru," she whispered out of a throat tight with an aching want. Every time she saw him it got worse, more and more painful to fight him off – and the longer this went on, the less she remembered of all her reasons to deny herself what she wanted so badly. "Why d-do you insist on fighting with your brother?" she asked after getting herself under some semblance of control.

Lifting a hand to her throat, he gently palmed it, allowing his musk to gather in his hand. Once it reached a potency that would be too strong to cover no matter what, he rubbed it lightly into her skin.

"It is not I that started this battle – he is the one that came looking for me. But he will never understand that he is no match for me, and so we will continue to fight - especially if he does not stop trying to scent mark you as his." His eyes flashed as he caught her start. "Yes, I can smell what he is trying to do. But it matters not. You are not his, you are mine."

Fighting back the tears that practically choked off her voice as Inuyasha finally came back to his feet and ran at them with Tessaiga at the ready, she whispered, "Osuwari," just loud enough for the beads to activate and force the now cursing hanyou to the ground. "Yameteoku,* Inuyasha. Yameteoku. *Let the matter drop."

"Fuck no!" he bellowed, fighting to lift his head from the crater he was in. "I won't stop until that bastard learns who you really belong to!"

"Osuwari!" she shouted, turning on him, anger pushing back the tears as frustration helped to stiffen her spine. "I don't belong to you, baka! I'm not Kikyou! I am Kagome, and only _I_ can decide who I want to be with, not you," she added, her voice rapidly softening as she stared the angry hanyou in the eyes. "You chose Kikyou a long time ago, and that's fine. I accept that. But that means that we are just friends, Inuyasha, not anything else, and you can't own your friends. Don't forget that again."

By that time, however, Inuyasha had caught the scent of his brother's strengthened mark and his ability to think had disappeared immediately on realizing what that scent meant. So enraged that the kotodama couldn't hold him down, he shot to his feet with an angry howl.

"Do you even know what this bastard is doing, you stupid bitch? He's marking you as _his_!" he snarled, so angry he could barely see straight. "So why aren't ya yelling at him, huh?"

Kagome's face fell and a weary, tired tear ran down her cheek as her eyes closed. So much had happened since the beginning of this quest and she was so exhausted. But it was an emotional exhaustion – one that came from denying her heart. Somehow, over the months of the mission she'd managed to find something within the daiyoukai standing quietly and protectively in front of her that spoke to her heart. The heart that was almost fully his, now, no matter how badly she wished that it were not so.

It was a truth that broke her even more.

"I already knew that he had done that, Inuyasha," she finally said, her voice barely above a whisper though it may as well have been a shout, because the shocked hanyou heard every syllable. "But that's between he and I, not you." She opened her eyes again, pinning him with their intensity. "You have Kikyou. She is who you want, who you want to protect. _I_ am free to find my own destiny and it doesn't matter if you like what I choose." Her words were direct, biting though her tone was so gentle, and every bit of fight drained from the hanyou for the moment as shock froze him and he watched in stunned dismay as the girl he'd spent so much time protecting looked up at his brother, who met her gaze with an oddly open one of his own.

"You don't own me, either, Sesshoumaru. I own myself, and while you may be my... weakness, my own particular brand of poison-" she gestured almost mockingly at his claws, another tear following the path of the first, "-I refuse to be owned like some worthless trinket that loses all value as soon as it's bought. You only think you want me because I've fought you, but if I were to give in you'd no longer want me and I'd be cast aside as just another useless human."

Her words echoed loudly in the angrily vibrating air around the three, and she reached up a hand to wipe the tears from her face as she turned away with slumped shoulders to head back into the small hut.

Sesshoumaru, hooded eyes now burning with an anger to match Inuyasha's, reached for her and clasped his hand around her arm, halting her retreat. He ignored his brother's low growl and her own gasp and flinch as he did.

"You are not human, as I believe I've said before," he rapped out, his voice little more than a guttural growl. "You may have the form of one, but so do I, and I am as little human as you are. Hide your true form away behind what is little more than clothing as you will, but do not think that I am fooled the least bit by it. If you were human you would smell of death – and you do not. And I-" his fingers tightened around her arm as his eyes gained in intensity, "-will never cast you aside, for that would be as foolish as casting parts of myself away. What is more, you know all this already, you feel what we are inside and you can only lie to yourself for so long before these truths will force you to face them."

Tessaiga swung around to point at his throat and Sesshoumaru's eyes flickered as he glanced sideways at his brother.

"Let her go, Sesshoumaru," Inuyasha growled, the seeming calm in his voice belied by the raging turbulence of his eyes. "Kagome, go back inside the hut and we'll talk about this when the sadistic bastard here finally gets bored listening to his own voice and leaves." He pointedly ignored what he did not want to hear, his brother's assertions of her inhumanity too much for him to deal with at the present time.

"That is an amusing statement coming from you, half-breed," Sesshoumaru said with mockery evident in his voice. "Since it was you that sought this one out and demanded answers. It is not my concern if you do not like the answers you have received." He slowly let go of his hold on Kagome's arm, ignoring his half-brother's seething anger as he lost himself in her drowned eyes. Neither one even noticed when Inuyasha stepped back, staring in confusion as he finally _looked_ at the two together and was stunned speechless at the sheer _heat_ between them.

They continued to stare at each other and Inuyasha felt like an intruder, an interloper that was seeing something he wasn't supposed to but could never understand anyway. Dismay captured his breath in his chest and he stumbled as he tried to deny what he was seeing to himself.

It wasn't working too well.

… _the hell? _Confusion swimming in eyes that were so close to the gold of his brother's and yet were also oddly flat, Inuyasha finally managed to croak out his demands. "It doesn't matter what you say, Sesshoumaru, she already said she doesn't belong to you." He refused to even consider the rest of what she'd said about wanting Sesshoumaru – it had to be that she was just tired from fighting with the overbred dog and was having a weak moment. He'd let her sleep in the next morning and once she'd managed to get some rest she'd be back in fighting trim in no time. "Go back to that simpering toad of yours and leave us alone." He tensed, ready for an attack from his brother, and without taking his gaze off him told Kagome to go back inside again.

Both ignored his words, gazes still locked together, but when he swung at his sibling in frustrated anger, he found himself slammed to the ground before he'd even seen his brother move.

In a low, vehement voice, Sesshoumaru took him to task over his carelessness towards Kagome's safety. "And yet again you endanger her without care, you useless mutt!" he snarled, his lip curling and a fang peeking out as his eyes drained of all warmth and became bleak and frigidly cold. "You never learn, do you, hanyou? Hate me as you will, but if you try to strike at me one more time while she is in the way, I will send you to join Chichi-ue and your useless mother in hell!"

He didn't move as arms came around him from behind, though his eyes lost some of their ice as Kagome's scent washed over him, calming the edges of his rage enough for him to grasp the fraying corners of his temper.

"Leave it, Sesshoumaru," she said softly, one hand coming up to rest on the arm he still had around his brother's throat as she touched him for the first time of her own accord. "The only time he loses his sense like this is when he's fighting with you."

After a few, frozen last moments of holding his brother around the throat, he dropped him and moved, and in the blink of an eye Kagome found herself being held on the other side of the clearing as Sesshoumaru continued to try to get a grip on his almost out-of-control rage.

It took several minutes, but finally his tense form relaxed and he inhaled deeply, allowing his anger to slip away as he exhaled.

"He only lives because of you," he said finally. "But I meant what I said. I have lost all patience with the brat and if he endangers you again, in any way, I will come take you from him and you will travel by my side," he finished warningly. "I am no longer willing to indulge you in this matter."

"Let me remind you that it isn't your decision," she returned, sounding weary again. "I make my own choices, and I travel with Inuyasha because it's necessary. You should go now, Sesshoumaru. I think there's been enough said tonight."

"Do not make me resort to force, Kagome. I do not wish to force you to my side, but better that than letting you be killed because Inuyasha is a fool." He turned away to head back to his camp. "And tell the neko and kitsune that it will do them no good to try to muddle the scents any longer. You are marked as mine and they cannot hide that, no matter what they try."

Numbed by the confrontation and bombarded by so many different emotions, Kagome watched as the trees swallowed him, all sense of his presence fading as he vanished.

The air in the clearing turned sullen and heavy as she turned away from where he'd disappeared and she trudged back to the hut, all the while ignoring the snarling, cursing voice of her hanyou companion as she did. This fight had just been a preview of what was going to come, she knew, because Inuyasha would never stop fighting with his brother – and especially not over something so important to them both.

_So now he knows that Sesshoumaru has marked me. But I bet the only reason he didn't go completely insane is because I'd told him that he doesn't own me anymore than Inuyasha does. If he were ever to realize the truth of how I feel for his brother..._

_Red wrath would rain down on the entire world._

She shivered.

Because it was only a matter of time until she could no longer fight her need for the daiyoukai, and then hell would come to earth at Inuyasha's urging.

~oOo~

Morning dawned sullen and cool with overcast skies and a complete lack of sun, and Kagome sighed tiredly and turned over in her sleeping bag to stare at the mat-covered door. Inuyasha had refused to come inside at all, snarling that she stank of his brother and he didn't feel like gagging all night.

With Miroku, Sango, Kirara, and Shippo all gone off to Mushin's temple there was no one else around to help break the tension and she sighed and sat up, wrapping her arms around her knees; she pulled them almost defensively to her chest as she stared blankly at the wall through fatigue-dulled blue eyes. She could only be glad that the rest of her companions were due back this same day.

Ever since she'd been taken by Akago and he'd tried to find the darkness in her heart, she'd been steadily weakening even further towards the daiyoukai's advances. She could only surmise that all Akago's digging around inside her had weakened her defenses – not that they weren't already weak enough when it came to Sesshoumaru, anyway.

_I guess I'm just lucky that Akago, and thereby Naraku, didn't realize the truth of what that darkness really was, thinking it was all about Inuyasha. I don't want them to find out about Sesshoumaru. _She wasn't sure why, but it just seemed safer for some reason to let them keep thinking that Inuyasha was her weakness.

Of course, she didn't know about Sesshoumaru's little visit with Kagura and what he'd deliberately let her know, or she would have realized it was a futile exercise to try to hide her connection to the daiyoukai.

A rustling sound came from just outside the door and then the matting was flung back and Inuyasha stuck his head in. He scowled at her when he found her already awake. "Keh! Don't just sit around, bitch, we've got shit to do, and we can't sit around twiddling our thumbs while you moon over Sesshoumaru!"

"Osuwari!"

A yelp was cut off as the hanyou hit the wooden step and then crashed though it, and Kagome sniffed loftily and turned to pick up her sleeping bag so she could fold it and put it away. Ignoring the cursing hanyou, she slung her bag over her shoulder and stepped right on him as she left the hut, a nice bounce in her step as she did.

She trudged across the meadow towards the small stream at the far edge of it, her eyes unable to miss the disturbed ground from last night's fight with Sesshoumaru. Determined not to think about him, she blithely ignored all traces of his presence and proceeded to kneel down at the water's edge so that she could wash up and brush her teeth.

None of that took very long and by the time she once more neared the hut, Inuyasha was standing up again. He turned away from her, refusing to meet her eyes, and said, "Let's go, wench. We have a ways to go to reach the rendezvous with Miroku and Sango, and I don't wanna waste any time and get there late."

No more words were spoken as the two headed out, Inuyasha walking ahead of her so he didn't have to speak to her.

He was having a really hard time controlling himself with his damned brother's scent all over Kagome. His only means of keeping control so that he didn't lose it and hurt the girl was to stay ahead of her so that he didn't have to keep smelling Sesshoumaru.

"I wish some sunlight would come through," Kagome said in a low tone, speaking more to herself than anything.

"Forget it, wench, this'll burn off by noon. We're close to the beach now and this stuff will just dissipate as the day warms up," he said stiffly, still refusing to look at her.

She sighed, then glanced through her bangs at her friend. He was actually taking the whole thing better than she'd thought, but again, it was only because he didn't realize that she had such feelings for his brother. They were so close to love now that it wouldn't take much to push her over the edge into it, and it would be a true freefall – there wouldn't be anything waiting at the bottom to catch her, because while Sesshoumaru seemed to want her she wasn't fool enough to think that his cold little heart had warmed just for her.

Still, the distance her friend was treating her with hurt – it wasn't like she'd asked for any of this.

She knew better than to say anything, though, because Inuyasha was never rational when his brother was brought into the conversation and she didn't want to make things worse than they already were.

The silence remained unbroken as they trudged along near the shore, only the sound of the waves and the lonely cry of an albatross through the fog keeping her company through her dark, heavy thoughts.

~oOo~

_Go and play your flute in the other world._

Sesshoumaru's hand clenched around the flute he held, despite the pain from his burned hand from wielding Tessaiga against the multitude of youkai that Sara-sama had allowed inside her. After a moment he placed it into the pile of dust that was all that was left of the human hime who had invited those youkai in and then stood and walked away, not even looking back once at his brother or his companions.

That whole episode had given him so much to think about, and he didn't dare look at Kagome in the state he was in.

While he would never have held any kind of deeper feelings for the girl, he couldn't hide from the fact that he had felt one emotion towards her – pity. And that pity for her plight had turned very quickly to compassion. It wasn't something that was familiar to him, though, and he was greatly unnerved by it.

If some human female had come to him claiming to hold feelings for him before, he would have killed her for daring to sully him with something so pathetic even inside her own mind.

And while he'd certainly felt contempt during all that had happened, it was more towards the youkai who had used her feelings to attack him than it was at her.

It was, of course, Kagome's doing. As he drowned in her more and more he was losing his usual cool aloofness towards others, and he didn't like where that was taking him.

He stopped and stared down at his still painfully burned hand with a bitter grimace. _And still Tessaiga refuses me. For all that it claims to be a sword that is made to defend humans, it accepts Inuyasha even when he abrogates his sworn word to protect Kagome and runs off, leaving her in danger. _He clenched his hand and then let it fall as an intense itch swept through it, proof that his healing abilities had already begun to fix the damage to his flesh.

_Am I becoming as weak as I named Chichi-ue? _

That question echoed endlessly inside his mind and he continued on towards Ah-Uhn and Rin with his youki flaring wildly around him, a state that gave away his inner turmoil.

_Is it some weakness that is hidden within Inuyoukai, remaining locked inside until a certain age?_

On the other hand, he hadn't missed Kagome's shock at his actions – nor her almost unwilling approbation. S_he wanted to free that hime from the filth that had infested her. _But as much as he wished he could say that he had only done it to manipulate Kagome's emotions, he could not. He wasn't one for lying to himself once he'd been forced to actually see the truth, no matter how unpalatable that truth was.

_It seems that my heart isn't as dead as I thought it was. _After his father had turned his back on his mate and eldest son to take a human hime and sire a child on her, he had sworn to be heartless, icy, and dangerous. Sworn to hate humans forever. Until now he'd kept that promise, too.

_I convinced myself that I had no heart and so I had no need to feel remorse or guilt no matter what I did. But it seems that Kagome is like a mirror – she strips away all the lies and half-truths you have bound yourself in and makes you face yourself as you truly are._

His mind went back to the fight with Sou'unga, when his half-brother had surprised him with his will to keep fighting despite the odds and his weariness – and his reasons for doing so. "_When a human has something to protect, they don't ever give up!" _He'd wanted so badly to scoff – but then, when that devil sword had started to send a burst of deadly energy towards Kagome he'd immediately reacted, striking out with his whip and directing the blow at himself, instead. The finishing blow, too – the energy from Tessaiga and Tenseiga showcased his blind denials for exactly what they were as they'd raced towards that evil weapon. He'd once again denied protecting anything, and yet he'd still attacked Sou'unga, adding Tenseiga's might to Tessaiga's so that the hell blade would be cast back into the other world – and very far away from Kagome.

_Despite all my denials, I have been protecting her since the moment I chose her – which was, _he smiled ironically, _the moment I met her. And no more can I deny that I have protected Rin just as fiercely. I am even taking vengeance on Naraku on her behalf, not just because he tried to control me with a shard of that jewel._

Again he came to a stop and stared at the trunk of a large tree that reminded him of the Goshinboku that grew in Inuyasha's forest. He followed its great trunk upwards with his eyes blindly as its upper branches disappeared into the thick mist, still lost in his disturbed and confusing thoughts.

_Is it really so bad to protect that which is yours? _He couldn't deny that he only felt stronger when he was fighting to protect Rin and Kagome. His swords clanked together softly as he shifted, and Tenseiga, seeming to understand his turmoil, pulsed gently as his hand brushed against it. It fell silent again as he stepped around the tree and continued on towards his waiting companions.

Kagome... she was so much more than even he had known in the beginning. Seen through Tenseiga's light she was pure energy in a humanoid shell that did little to truly hide her from those who could see past that shell. But despite the fact that she had tremendous power, she didn't really know how to call it at will. That didn't seem to matter to her, though; she had more courage and determination than he'd ever seen in anyone, either youkai or human. She never faltered, never gave up, and he would give anything he owned and more besides to have that graceful spirit near to him always.

_She does not even flinch in the face of death. How many can say the same? Me? But then... I have never feared death, for I have not found any being with enough power to actually kill me. It seems that the path to Supreme Conquest is merely a dead end for me, since I am already at the pinnacle of power and have no need to prove myself any longer._

It was a strange realization, but true nonetheless. All these years, everything he had done was all to show his sire that he was worthy. That _he_ was the worthy son, and that it had been his mistake to turn his back on his heir to acknowledge a half-breed weakling. And that despite his father's death. He smiled without amusement at that. He'd been wasting his time for two hundred years trying to prove himself to someone who couldn't even see it anyway.

He was forced from his thoughts momentarily as Rin and Ah-Uhn came into sight and Jaken came running forward with his typical questions.

"Where have you been, Sesshoumaru-sama?"

_Where have I been...?_

"Nowhere," he said with finality after a moment as he turned to lead them away. _I have been nowhere and everywhere all at once. _

And just faintly, almost too faint for him to hear, a flute played a lonely, haunting air as he led the little child he now saw as his own up the narrow pathway to the top of the ravine. Just as they reached it, the sun broke through the tattered clouds and began burning away the melancholy stillness of the morning's fog.

But inside Sesshoumaru, the realizations that he'd come to continued to batter at him and the confusion and angst was only being fed by what he could feel of Kagome's own emotions. Would he return to his former freedom from feelings if he repudiated the girl? His entire soul pulsed with pain at the thought, almost bringing him to his knees, and he threw it aside. _It is already too late for me..._

_It seems I am doomed if I do, and doomed if I do not._

He tilted his head down and nodded in silent surrender as his eyes fell closed.

_So be it._

~oOo~

yameteoku-let the matter drop


	10. Fallen

**Chapter 10 Fallen**

Sango cast a sideways glance at her friend; Kagome seemed even more morose than she had when she and Miroku had left to see his master. And Inuyasha was very, very angry about something.

But what?

"Ano... Kagome... what's going on?" she whispered so as not to have sharp hanyou ears listening in on the conversation. "Did something happen while we were gone?"

Before Kagome could respond, Shippo piped up. "Sesshoumaru came around again, didn't he? You smell just like him, now."

"You mean Inuyasha knows that Sesshoumaru has marked you and the world hasn't ended?" Sango gasped incredulously. She'd been so sure that blood would have been shed when he found out. It explained his anger, but...

"He went looking for Sesshoumaru last night, demanding answers, and they ended up back where we'd stopped for the night. So yes, he knows, but he hasn't completely lost it because I promptly told them both that neither one owns me." She twisted her fingers together, fidgeting uncomfortably under the interested stares of the others. "He'll probably go back to being his usual annoying self once he's managed to convince himself that all didn't happen, that it was just a bad dream."

It was silent for a few minutes as they continued walking, but then Sango spoke again. "I'm surprised that Inuyasha's still in one piece, though – Sesshoumaru should have been able to tell that he'd started trying to mark you."

"He did. He also noticed what Kirara and Shippo have been doing. He told me to pass on the message that it won't avail them anything to continue trying."

"Yeah, we can both smell that," Shippo interrupted, rolling his eyes. "Anyone within a couple of ri will be able to tell that you're marked. Demons will really start avoiding you, now – all except Naraku, of course, 'cause he's stupid and hasn't yet figured out that Sesshoumaru could kill him in a heartbeat."

"Oh yeah, right," Sango rolled her eyes, "if that was true, then he already would have."

For some reason, Sango's scoff in regards to Sesshoumaru angered Kagome. "The only reason Naraku's managed to stay alive against him is because he never faces him alone in honest combat. He always has his shards of the jewel which gives him a never-ending supply of energy to continually regenerate himself. If he didn't have that Sesshoumaru would have already killed him a long time ago," she finished tersely.

_Whoa, _Sango thought, wide-eyed, _has she gotten protective of Sesshoumaru, or what?_

"I didn't mean it like that, Kagome," she murmured after a few seconds of silence. "The only reason Naraku can stand against any of us is that jewel – without it he's nothing. But Sesshoumaru is in the same boat as us – as long as Naraku _does_ hold some of that jewel he won't be able to defeat him, no matter how powerful he is."

Kagome hummed with slight annoyance at her, but then cast the conversation away and went back to her morose thoughts.

She couldn't believe what had happened with that hime, Sara. Or rather, she didn't _want_ to believe, because all that whole situation did was soften her heart the rest of the way, and now she had no strength left to fight him.

He'd made her fall in love with him.

She grimaced painfully at her thoughts.

_He was so quiet, listening to her explanations just before she passed and then picking up her discarded flute and placing it with her ashes. He didn't treat her badly, didn't ridicule her for her feelings despite the fact that he doesn't like humans. It was so much more than I had ever expected to see from him._

And then her brow furrowed as she sank deeper into her memories. _But... maybe I shouldn't be so surprised, after all. I mean, he did save me more than once – from Mukotsu, and during that fight with Sou'unga he took an attack on himself so I wouldn't be hit._

But he'd never hidden the fact that he wanted her. And so it wasn't so surprising that he'd protected her – she was his property, at least according to him. But what about Rin? And his lack of venom to that poor hime? What were his reasons for that?

Another thing that was bothering her, one that had been clamoring for her attention for weeks though she'd managed to ignore it up 'til now was what she was coming to believe his real reasons for hating Inuyasha were. It was all about their father and Sesshoumaru's perception of his reasons for the things he'd done. For bequeathing Tessaiga to Inuyasha.

It was hurt, plain and simple, that was causing him to act the way he did - not an evil nature.

And Kagome couldn't stand to see anything in pain, let alone someone so vibrantly alive and strong as Sesshoumaru.

That wasn't to say that he didn't have a darker side, because he did. Anyone who'd been exposed to his frigid wrath knew it. But unlike what she'd once thought, that darker side wasn't his _only_ side. Besides, an emotional hurt was something that could be healed, as long as the wound was lanced and allowed to drain of all the poison inside it. It may never go away entirely, because it had been festering inside him for two hundred years and would leave at least a scar on his soul, but it was something that she could do – if he let her close enough to do it.

She really wished she could get her hands on their father and demand to know what he'd been thinking in doing things the way he had; but it wasn't her place and so she'd just have to try to heal him as best she could.

_It's not going to be easy, though. It's not like we travel together and I would have the chance. So what do I do?_

She felt sick with the knowledge of all the things she'd thought of him, all the things she'd _said_ to him, deriding his 'evil' nature and scoffing at his desire for her. _I can't believe I've acted this way... so much for purity, _she chastised herself. _I should have known better than to take everything here at face value – it's so different to my own world that I shouldn't have been judging anyone based on the rules and laws of my time._

_And then there's the fact that not only is Sesshoumaru not from my era, but he isn't even human. I've been expecting him to act like one and that's never going to happen._

She couldn't help the thought that she was actually glad for that; humans were just as capable of darkness and horror as any youkai. She'd begun to wonder about her reiki and its potential applications – she was pretty sure the only reason that it didn't seem to affect the people here was simply because of their beliefs that humans were pure and youkai were evil. She didn't suffer from that blind illusion, however, and was beginning to believe that reiki, if applied to an evil human, could probably purify them of their evil intent. True, it would not purify them into dust simply because the energy used was human in nature and so could not kill one. A youkai was susceptible to reiki in the manner they were because the energy was different and alien to their bodies.

But one thing she had learned during her time here was that reiki wasn't even necessarily dangerous to youkai in and of itself. It wasn't an opposite energy as people in this time thought, because if that were the case Inuyasha's youki and her reiki would cancel each other out and they would not be able to combine their powers against a foe. As they had to great effect against Menomaru and even the so-called Four War Gods - and many times before and since.

That meant that it was _intent_ that mattered – it was the intent behind a use of reiki that influenced the outcome of any confrontation, not the power itself. So as long as she understood that youkai weren't inherently evil there wouldn't be a problem with her accidentally purifying someone that didn't deserve it.

Sesshoumaru, not being evil, would not have to consider her power as a threat. And she was happy for that. Naraku, on the other hand, she scowled, had better be worrying, because she was becoming quite tired of chasing all over Nihon after him. Sooner or later they would catch him and then she would be able to unleash all her frustration out on him. She looked forward to that day, as did they all, she knew.

"Oi, Kagome!" a loud voice called, and she was jerked out of her thoughts as it grated up her back.

"What is it, Inuyasha?" she asked a bit impatiently.

"We're gonna head back to Kaede's so you can go home and take a bath. Maybe one of the weird soaps in your time can clean that stench off of ya before I start heaving all over the place. You stink to high heaven of that bastard Sesshoumaru and I almost think it's getting stronger. Probably is," he muttered, "knowing that evil bastard. He'd do it just to make me get sick."

Eyes beginning to spark and flame and hair fluttering in the breeze that sprang up only around her, Kagome clenched her fists and stared at the arrogant hanyou belligerently. "Osuwari," she snapped between gritted teeth. "For your information, Inuyasha," she ground out his name with sarcasm liberally coating the sound, "your brother smells a hell of a lot better than you! No one could possibly complain about his hygiene, unlike you who rarely takes a bath even after getting drenched in youkai guts. If you're gonna dog on your brother, pun intended, then at least do it based on an actual fault!"

Inuyasha growled dangerously at her from his spot prone in the road at her feet. "Fine, then! I was only offering ya a chance to go home for a day or so and you're gonna act like that? See if I let you go home again!"

The rest of the group watched with gaping jaws as Inuyasha let his ass overload his mouth. Did he never learn?

"Osuwari, osuwari, osuwari!" she shouted angrily, stomping up to the edge of his crater and pointing at him in inarticulate rage. She growled and mumbled beneath her breath for several moments before finally gaining control of her mouth again. She was tired of letting him get away with everything the way he had been. No longer willing to allow him to order her around, she cut loose and let him have it in no uncertain terms.

"Who the hell do you think you are? I'm not answerable to anyone except my mother, and she isn't here! And if she _were_, she'd be sitting you, too! I'll go home when and if I feel like it, and since you were so kind-" she spat that word out with a mouth full of acid, "-as to offer, I'm going to take you up on it." She turned her head to look at Sango and the rest of the group over her shoulder, her eyes narrowing in on Kirara. The tiny firecat mewed and dropped from Sango's arms to trot over to her friend and transform in a flash of fire. Kagome was a little surprised, and she looked at Sango questioningly. "Sango? Is it okay?"

Sango just shook her head with a wry smile. "She's waiting for you, so I suppose it is. She's her own person and I don't own her, so if she's willing then I don't have a problem with it."

Kagome nodded in acceptance and looked at the neko mononoke that she'd come to be very fond of. "I'll be sure to bring you back a treat, Kirara, as thanks for taking me to the well."

Kirara mewed and Kagome crawled up onto her back. "I'll see you guys in three days, okay?" she said, blithely ignoring the cursing rant of the cratered hanyou.

Shippo had to get one last word in. "Don't forget to bring some more ninja food, Kagome! Especially pocky!"

Sango and Miroku just waved, watching with dry acceptance as she disappeared into the horizon, and then looked down at the now very dirty hanyou as he finally managed to crawl out of the hole he'd dug for himself.

"You just never learn, do you, Inuyasha?" Miroku finally asked wearily. "You would think you would know her enough by now to know what her triggers are."

An oddly quiet Inuyasha stood up with no sign of temper in his bearing, only stone cold sobriety as he dusted himself off. "I'm not that stupid, Miroku, despite what all of you seem to think. I did that on purpose because I knew just how she'd react to what I was saying. And she did – she's on her way home and that was my goal."

Astounded, everyone stared at him gape-jawed in surprise.

"Ano... you _wanted_ her to go home?" Miroku finally asked, needing to hear it again to be sure that his ears weren't misleading him. Or that it really was Inuyasha and not another trick of Naraku's.

"She really stinks of that bastard Sesshoumaru, and I was starting to lose control of my temper," he answered. "I don't want to lose myself to my youkai blood and hurt her. I needed to get her out of here for a few days so I could work myself through my anger at the prick."

"So... you're accepting that he has claimed her, then?" Sango asked curiously.

"Hell, no!" he shot back, brows lowering angrily over furious golden eyes. "I won't let him have her, no matter what he says. I just couldn't stand to smell her scent mixed with his any longer – if my youkai blood got loose it would probably attack her because she smells like him and I never want that to happen. Ever." With that, he turned on his heel and started back in the direction of Kaede's village, not willing to talk any further.

The others all followed behind him after a few moments to take in what they'd just learned, because suddenly, they were seeing him in an all new light.

It was very disorienting and confusing, no doubt about it.

~oOo~

True to her word, Kagome arrived back in the past on the evening of the third day so that they could go out on another hunt first thing in the morning.

She was a little bit calmer after a few days away to think, and she wasn't going to let Inuyasha's foul temper break that calm with his mouth. "If you know what's good for you, you won't say a thing about my scent, Sesshoumaru, or that he marked me, are we clear?" she said in a voice devoid of any warmth, and Inuyasha's ears flattened to his head – he knew that tone, and when she was pushed far enough to sound like that he knew better than to push her any further.

His brother's scent on her had gotten a little lighter and she'd obviously mixed it up even further by wearing what she'd called deodorant on her neck. It might sound funny, but it actually worked fairly well to cover scents, which shouldn't have been so surprising considering that was what it was supposed to do – cover up strong bodily scents.

She'd liberally applied the stuff to her neck where he'd marked her; demons would still know to avoid her, but it wasn't so strong that it would push Inuyasha's short temper into igniting.

It was the best she could do.

She had become so inured to Sesshoumaru's scent that it had taken her actually leaving the Sengoku Jidai for her to realize that he'd scented her so strongly that even she could smell it.

But unlike Inuyasha's reaction, she wasn't repulsed at all. He smelled of winter, of mint, of pine and fresh, icy cold water and it was a scent she thoroughly enjoyed. In fact, she knew it wasn't really Sesshoumaru's scent that Inuyasha hated – it was merely the association of that scent to his sordid past and unpleasant present with his brother.

Once her hanyou companion had slouched off, Kagome laid down her sleeping bag in one corner of Kaede's hut and then crawled inside and zipped herself in so that she could ruminate in peace. The others all knew that when she did that she either planned on getting some sleep or needed to think, and wouldn't bother her unless it was really important.

One hand curled near her face as her mind went back to what had happened on her side of the well in school. She'd been rightly shocked when Hojo presented her with a scroll that had her name on it, and even more when she realized what that scroll was. It was the Hojo family tree, and her name was placed on the married line... with Akitoki Hojo, who she'd already met when he went looking for a way to get rid of Kaguya's celestial robe by throwing it into the mouth of Mount Fushi.

It was a strange coincidence and she couldn't help but wonder what her fate really was. Was she destined to marry Akitoki? But then... that couldn't be, since Sesshoumaru in her era had shown her a picture of both of them together. And while photoshopping pictures was fairly common in her time, that photo had not been, she was sure. It was dog-eared and time worn – and it was in black and white. And then there were the clothes they were wearing. No... it wasn't fake, she was sure. Sesshoumaru wasn't the type to lie like that. Besides, she was pretty sure the daiyoukai wouldn't allow her to marry someone else, anyway, let alone a human that was barely over the cusp of childhood, so it had to be just coincidence that a woman with the same name married into the Hojo clan in this era.

For hours her thoughts ran like that, each one chasing the one before it until she couldn't take much more and began to toss and turn, her eyes blank with weariness yet still unable to sleep.

Finally giving up on the idea of a good night's sleep, she got up and quietly ventured outside, actually glad to see no sign of Inuyasha. It meant that she could go sit somewhere and let the night soothe her without having a nagging hanyou on her rear.

Even from in the village she could see the Goshinboku – five hundred years younger than in her time or not, it was still much larger than any of the trees around it, and that gave her a sense of comfort. The world changed, true, but at least some parts of it remained pretty much the same.

She settled down on top of a hill above the village and laid back, content just to look at the stars and let her mind wind down, surrounded by peace and quiet.

_I wonder where Sesshoumaru is? I haven't felt him since I left. _She scoffed at herself after a moment when she realized where her mind was running off to. _And that's a good thing, so don't start pouting!_

It was odd, though, on the face of it, that the daiyoukai was missing since it was extremely rare that she'd actually been unable to feel his presence since first meeting him. She frowned and stirred uneasily; had something happened to him? She shook her head fiercely. No... there was nothing out there strong enough to really hurt Sesshoumaru. Not even Naraku, for all his wishful thinking - shards of the jewel notwithstanding.

So where could he be?

That question echoed through her mind repeatedly as the wheel of heaven slowly turned above her, even the brilliance of the stars unable to quiet her thoughts as they usually did.

~oOo~

Sesshoumaru grimaced slightly, his hand going to his chest; it seemed Kagome had returned from the future and was worried... for him. He almost wanted to smile, but it would have had a wicked edge to it, and he didn't want to alarm Rin. So he simply kept his smirk inward, able to feel the emotions she was still not wanting to accept, yet really already had – he had indeed conquered her heart, just as he'd told her he would.

However, his inward gratification fizzled out as he was forced to once more acknowledge the fact that he wasn't the only one to have taken a heart; more and more of his emotions were being drawn to her, and he'd already admitted defeat in that battle. He would never be able to let her go or to deny her, despite the fact that he despised his weakness to her with every bit of himself. In the beginning, it had all been about need, sharp and painful; he desired her and because of that he _would_ have her, but it hadn't occurred to him that his own heart, buried beneath years of bitterness and ice would begin to thaw and desire her as much as his body did.

But despise this weakness or not it was there, and he could not, he _would_ not give her up to return to his previous state of cold, bitter, and aloof hatred.

_Even this direction that I travel now is all because of her._

A snarl echoed in his mind and he forced himself to calm again; this whole journey he was now on was for nothing more than a way to protect Kagome.

In the beginning he had paid no attention to the shards of the Shikon no Tama, not caring one whit about it or its supposed power. But that had changed; Naraku was after Kagome because she was the only one left that could see the shards of that blasted jewel, and the only way to stop that bastard from harming her was to find the final shard himself before the hanyou had a chance to do so.

It had not escaped his notice that this one last shard was very well hidden; even with all those that were after them it had not been found, and he was determined to be the one to do so if only so that he could draw the spider to him. There was no odds that Naraku would come after it even despite the danger, though it would probably be through puppets at first the hanyou would soon realize that he would have to face the daiyoukai personally if he wanted to gain his own ends.

And then he would have him right where he wanted him.

First he would speak to the eldest of them all; Bokuseno would probably have the correct answer to the riddle of the last shard's whereabouts. As the eldest youkai still alive, and the fact that he was a tree with roots that dug deep into the earth, nothing much escaped him. It would be shocking if the ancient magnolia did _not_ have at least a partial answer for him.

He paid no attention as Rin skipped happily by his side; there was nothing in this particular forest that could harm her in the least. Even Jaken was not reprimanding her as was his usual wont, the toad youkai was for once calm and keeping his beak shut. _Perhaps I should leave Jaken here with Bokuseno – he is much less annoying when he is silent._

There was little warning that one was approaching an ancient and powerful being until one actually stepped into his glade, and then even the most ignorant would be able to feel the presence of something much, much older than anything else. He simply came to a halt as Rin also stopped, coming to stand right behind him as he waited for the magnolia to respond to his presence.

"Sesshoumaru," came the acknowledgment in a deep, bass voice, one that echoed all around the clearing and left Rin and Jaken both awed, and more importantly, still silent. Rin gasped a little as the youkai's face appeared in the bark of his trunk as though it had always been there, but both the tree and Sesshoumaru ignored her little vocalization.

"Bokuseno."

"You have sought me out for some reason, proud youkai Lord; tell me what it is that you wish from me."

"You are aware of the Shikon no Tama's reappearance here in our era," he began, and Bokuseno's brow creased in surprise.

"I am... startled... that you would seek such a thing, Sesshoumaru. It is false power that you do not need, in any case," he replied, eyeing the daiyoukai curiously.

"I do not seek it on my own behalf," he returned, annoyance showing for just a moment before disappearing back into his normal blank mask. "But I wish to draw my enemy to me, and having the final shard of that pathetic jewel would do just that since he seeks it with a single-minded disregard for anything else."

Bokuseno's brow cleared as Sesshoumaru spoke. "Ah, I see. So you would ask me where the final shard is, then." The tree didn't need to see Sesshoumaru's response; he closed his eyes and slowly listened to everything that his roots were telling him. He couldn't help his surprise when he discerned the answer to the daiyoukai's question, however – how had it ended up there? "You have traveled far in your search for this answer, Sesshoumaru; but the several days travel that you undertook to reach my glade are but a fraction of the ground you will have to cover to find the final fragment, however."

Brow furrowed as his eyes narrowed in displeasure, Sesshoumaru waited for the rest of the youkai's words with aggravation clawing at his insides. Must everything always be difficult?

"It is a journey that you will not be able to take the child on, nor yet the toad; into the underworld you must go for the final shard of the jewel rests there – on the verge of hell, within your father's remains."

_That makes no sort of sense – how did a shard of that blasted bauble end up falling into the underworld? I don't remember its presence when I was there before. _He gritted his teeth and forced back his frustration with the news; it was what it was and there was no point in getting aggravated about it. He would have to leave Jaken and Rin someplace safe and then undertake the journey to his father's resting place if he wanted to get the shard before that damned hanyou – either of them, he thought with an inward smirk.

"You are certain?"

A slight creaking and thickening of the air in the glade gave away Bokuseno's displeasure at being questioned. "I would not have said it otherwise," he retorted even as his face once more disappeared into the rough bark covering his trunk, the aura of the glade lightening again as the elder fell back into his comfortable doze.

"Hnn." Eyes slitted as he thought about what he'd been told, he could not help the sense of satisfaction that he had at least learned of its resting place so easily, all the while Naraku fumbled around trying to find that same answer.

Without further ado he turned on his heel and led his little group back out into the regular forest, still surprised at just where the shard was. He couldn't stop from speculating on how it had arrived there, in a place that was not openly connected to this world.

Nonetheless, as he tilted his head into the sudden breeze and caught the faint scent of miasma, he knew that Naraku would, sooner or later, learn where that shard was; he could feel on the wind the knowledge that the hanyou was up to no good, plotting some new mischief and no doubt using the shards he did have to create more servants for himself – more servants to search for the shard for him.

_It matters not_, he decided, _his machinations will do him no good, for I will never allow him to best me in this fight. _

_No matter what he thinks. _

~oOo~

_This is what happens when youkai and human try to overcome their differences and find love together, _Kagome thought despairingly as she watched, drained and feeling helpless as Inuyasha took on Hoshiyomi and the Naginata of Kenkon, its evil voice gibbering mockingly in her ears despite its distance to her. _No matter what Sesshoumaru says, something bad would happen to us, too, if I tried to stay with him._

For long moments that despair choked her and almost made her fold in on herself and just give up, for the first time _ever_, but then the memory of seeing Sesshoumaru in the modern era and with the picture he had of them both broke through the haze of grief and fear in her mind, and her brow furrowed as everything just stopped: Obviously, Hoshiyomi was _wrong_ when he said that human and youkai could not be together, because according to Sesshoumaru and that picture, he and she were quite openly together and he didn't look as though anything bad had come of that relationship.

Not to mention which, she almost growled, Sesshoumaru would never, ever give over his will to some weapon's influence – just as he'd proved with Tokijin. Just like he and Inuyasha's father, who had wielded Sou'unga and never fallen to that hellborn blade's will, Sesshoumaru would rule - he would _never_ bow.

And neither would she.

Closing her ears to Akitoki's declaration of love for her and everything else, she reached deep into herself, drawing from that well of power that Sesshoumaru had insisted she had and called out to the spirit of the woman who had loved Hoshiyomi – enough to seal him away so that she could try to erase the evil from his mind. Unfortunately, that had taken every bit of her strength and she had died before she could purge him of the weapon's evil and release him, her beloved once more.

_Tsukiyomi, this is your chance to finish what you started and take his mind back from the Naginata. Use my body and power to stop him from what he's about to do!_

That call was powerful; the spirit of the warrior priestess who had loved the youkai that was about to destroy the world for the bitterness of a perceived betrayal surged into her body, and with Kagome's power at her command overwhelmed the power of the Naginata, cleansing its evil and breaking its will. Finally, _finally_, Hoshiyomi's mind was able to clear and he accepted his fate as her power surged over him, rendering him into death and his lover's arms once more. As Hoshiyomi faded, so too did Tsukiyomi, leaving nothing behind but deeply felt gratitude for allowing her to finally end their tragic tale on a happy note, for now they would be together in death as they once had been in life – with nothing left behind that could tear them apart again.

_I hope you both find happiness, _Kagome thought, no anger in her at what had happened any longer – Hoshiyomi had suffered for a long time, and the madness that the kenkon and his long sealing had left him with was not truly his fault. At least now it was over and the kenkon was gone; it would never be able to influence anyone else ever again.

With a painful grimace she stumbled to her feet, determined to check everyone over and tend to their wounds. While shewas _surprised_ at Sesshoumaru's lack of appearance during this battle, she wasn't concerned any longer; she had finally realized that if she looked deep down inside she could feel him, and he was not in any danger.

He was angry, though, having felt her emotions and fear, but he couldn't complain – Inuyasha had come and protected her. Or tried to, anyway – but this time it had been her that had found the key to ending the battle, and she was proud of that. _Thank kami that Naraku hadn't gotten his creepy tentacles on that damn Naginata, though, or there would have been hell to pay. And even worse, Sou'unga! I've no doubt that sword could have taken over Naraku's mind and he would have unleashed a bloodbath on all of us. If that had happened, only Sesshoumaru would have been able to stop him..._

With a shake of her head, she set about tending to everyone's wounds, even a quiet and depressed Akitoki, who had finally figured out that Kagome would never be his bride – her heart was already taken, and by a youkai, no less.

"Will he marry you?" he asked, his voice low with sadness.

"Who?" Kagome asked, a little confused at the sudden question.

"Your youkai – Inuyasha. He protects you, but will he do right by you?"

Kagome blinked, caught off-guard by his misconception. "Oh!" she replied after a moment spent getting her wits back together. "Inuyasha isn't my... my..."

"Lover?" Akitoki broke in.

She leaned back on her heels and waved horrified hands at him with crimson cheeks. "No! No way! We're just friends!"

"But I don't understand," he frowned, "you didn't respond to my words of love at all. If you aren't in love with... well, then why wouldn't you give me a chance?"

Hands dropping into her lap slowly as her head also dropped, an almost bitter chuckle came from her, and she sighed. "Just because Inuyasha doesn't have my heart," she said in a low, hollow voice, "doesn't mean there isn't someone else that does."

"Who is it, then? Who has your heart?" he asked, and though it was a rather impertinent question, considering that she was basically rejecting him she decided to answer.

"Inuyasha's half-brother, Sesshoumaru, Lord of the West," she got out, for the first time openly admitting that the deadly daiyoukai had done exactly what he'd said he would – he'd taken her heart, just as he would at some point take her body, there was no getting around that knowledge anymore. It _would_ happen, it was just a matter of time.

There was a shocked silence; even Akitoki had heard of Sesshoumaru. "B-but," he stammered, "he hates humans! He will never return your feelings or marry you!"

Kagome closed her eyes and slumped a little, her weariness suddenly hitting her hard, but before she could respond to Akitoki's words, someone else did.

"Yeah, kinda weird, isn't it?" Shippo popped out as he plopped down next to the two. "But you're wrong, all right, strange as it is – Sesshoumaru's been after her since he first met her. He's already claimed her, so it's a good thing he didn't hear you saying you loved her, 'cause he probably would have flipped."

Completely stunned but unable to think of anything else to say, Akitoki stood, his head hanging as he grabbed his honor with both hands and forced himself to let his first love go. "I hope you find happiness with your youkai, Kagome-sama," he said, bowing politely to her as befit her status as a miko even though she really wasn't one, and then turning away to head home, tired and heartsick.

Kagome just watched him go, her eyes far away and her mind even further.

_I hope you meet your Kagome soon, Akitoki – I'm sorry that it couldn't be me, but I was destined to love someone else..._

_Even if it is an empty love, a love that can't be returned._

Shippo chose not to say anything as Kagome's eyes filled with tears and then fell closed again, one single tear tracking down a pale cheek as she slumped wearily.

_I wish I'd never come here._

~oOo~

A/N: As is becoming usual lately, I've not had the chance to answer all of my reviews, but I have read them all and enjoyed them. Or at least the ones this new damn version of Yahell mail has actually delivered. I've gotten so sick of dealing with Yahell that I'm thinking of changing to some other one – despite the fact that I've had Yahell for 14 years.

Anyway, with all the stories I'm working on, including my original one, I don't have much time for anything, so if I don't manage to answer you back, don't feel I'm ignoring you, because I'm not.

Amber


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